The Doctor's Wife
by DoctorGogh
Summary: The Doctor and the Ponds get thrown a little glowing box from the Corsair and quickly fly to the rescue, right outside the universe. Meanwhile in an alternate universe, Rose Tyler is finding a way home. After years of searching she's finally found it, all she needs to do is pop outside the universe and then slip back into her original. But will they find each other? House says no.
1. The Doctor's Wife (Part One)

Idris clutched Auntie's hand in her own as they slowly made their way to Uncle. This disfigured man stood in his confederate outfit, holding his makeshift shaft.

"Will it be me, Uncle?" Idris asked him, fear and trepidation in her voice.

"Yes, it's going to be you." The older man responded, his drawling voice bordering on uncaring. "I only wish I could go in your place, Idris. Nah, I don't," he suddenly said, his entire mood changing as he laughed, "cause it's really gonna hurt." Idris breathed in sharply and looked to Auntie, who was nodding and smiling mutely.

A pain shot through the young woman's abdomen, knocking the breath out of her. "It's starting." She gasped. "What will happen?" Idris asked as she was led to a crude platform. She stood above the metal grating and looked to Auntie as the hunched woman explained.

"Oh. Er… Nephew will drain your mind and your soul from your body and leave your body empty." Nephew, an Ood with glowing green eyes, grasped the sides of Idis' head as he prepared the mental swipe.

Idris' eyes widened. "I'm scared." She whispered.

"Well I expect so dear." Auntie replied, none too gently. "But soon you'll have a new soul. There'll be a Time Lord coming."

Idris grasped her throat and gasped as jagged fingers grasped at her mind. It roughly ripped her entire being apart from her body, leaving behind an empty shell.

She collapsed.

* * *

Rose Tyler sat silently in The Library. She looked down at the text before her, disbelieving. She'd found it. She'd finally found it. A way back home.

The Doctor has told her, had clearly stated that travel between parallel worlds was impossible, and he was right. To travel outside the universe was a completely different thing altogether. All one needed was the correct coordinates and a nifty little thing similar to a vortex manipulator.

Rose looked down to the device on her wrist. It wasn't the exact same as Jack's in the other universe, but it was close enough to the original. It'd taken Rose almost ten years to gain enough knowledge, and then the necessary supplies to cobble a somewhat working facsimile together. Once she'd made it to a time period with the right tech, she'd quickly made a new one. It was flawless. Black metal, sleek like a watch and held a digital touch screen that popped up from its glass-like face.

Now she had her coordinates too. After a year of searching The Library in Pete's world – which Rose was more than happy to find wasn't infested with the Vashna Nerada like the Doctor had said it'd been in the other world – now, Rose could go home.

A quick pop outside the universe and then slip through a crack into the original universe and she was one step closer to the Doctor.

Rose stood up and pulled on her TARDIS blue leather jacket, a replica of the one she'd worn all those years ago when the stars had gone out. With quick fingers, she typed in the coordinates and specific codes required to leave.

She didn't hesitate.

_POP!_

Rose stumbled as she landed on hard ground. Her vision swam for a second and she desperately fought back the erg to be sick. Everything slowly swam back into place and Rose straightened up. She'd landed on some sort of planet… of garbage. There was junk everywhere. It was as if someone had thrown all things ever lost or unwanted onto one planet. Rose briefly wondered if there'd be a section for socks that the laundry ate and never gave back.

She bounced up and down on the ground. Different from earth, similar but off a bit, she evaluated. Not surprising though, considering she wasn't in the universe anymore. Rose pulled out her sonic screwdriver. It was sleek and made of black metal, like her vortex manipulator. The light at the end lit up a bright blue and emanated a warbling noise as she scanned the dirt.

"Yup," she said, popping the 'p'. "Defin'ly different."

"Wolf!"

Rose's head snapped up in the direction of the call. A woman in tattered Victorian style clothes waved as she ran out from behind some half destroyed spaceship. Her face broke into a grin and she raced down the road as she waved and hollered. "It's you! It's really you!"

"I'm sorry wha'?" Rose stepped back as the woman grabbed her shoulders, then her face, then her hair. It was as if the dark haired one couldn't quite believe that Rose was real.

"Oh I didn't think this would happen yet! I really should have realised I mean, how many times will I get to walk about, really?"

Two slightly hunched people came racing out from where the woman had come from. They waved their arms and hollered for the woman, Idris did they say?

"Who _are_ you?"

"Oh but you're supposed to – no wait you will – or maybe I should –" Idris gasped as realisation struck her. She grabbed Rose's cheeks and before the blonde knew what was happening, Idris was kissing her.

Shock. That was the first thing that ran through Rose's mind. Then suddenly Bad Wolf opened up. Rose didn't understand why, she'd harnessed that power years ago. She knew how to control it, how to stop the Time Vortex inside of her from consuming her. Then suddenly Idris kissed her and… TARDIS. _Oh my god_.

Rose opened her eyes and looked into Idris'. They both glowed a bright gold as the Time Vortex swirled between the two of them. Idris gently let go of the other woman's face.

"How?" Rose asked the TARDIS. "No – wait, better question. Where's the Doctor, yeah? He can fix this."

Idris opened her mouth but a man stepped forward and gently pulled her back. "Sorry about her," he chuckled dryly, "she doesn't know what's going on."

Rose narrowed her eyes. "Is tha' a joke? That's an immortal time and space machine right there. She knows plenty, thank you. Now where'd tha' Doctor? Wha' have you done with him?"

The man glared darkly. "Oh you're gonna be a bit of a nuisance aren't ya? Nephew?" Rose turned around just as an Ood came forward and hit her across the side of the head. She collapsed to the ground, unconscious.

Idris turned glaring, gold eyes on Uncle. "What have you done to my Wolf?"

"Now none of tha' Idris, or we'll lock you up when the Time Lord arrives."

* * *

"So what kind of trouble is your friend in?" Amy asked as she looked about the junk on the planet they'd landed on.

The Doctor half listened to her question, the rest of his mind firmly on where the TARDIS Matrix could have gone. It couldn't have just vanished. It couldn't be dead. He looked around; up was the back end of a spaceship, everywhere else was scrap and junk. "He was in a bind. A bit of a pickle. Sort of distressed." Amy was talking about the little box he'd received. Mail. The thought itself perked him up. The Corsair had to have been alive to send it. Another Time Lord. Alive.

Amy rolled her eyes as she looked about the new planet herself. "Ah, you can't just say you don't know." The Doctor didn't hear her. He was gazing at a mound of junk creating a misshapen hill. There was a silver metal pipe jutting out of the side of it with some sort of writing on it. He gazed intently at it, squinted his eyes to see.

"But what is this place?" Rory asked, still confused as to where they'd ended up. "The scrap yard at the end of the universe?"

"Not end of, outside of." The Doctor responded, distracted. Those words, they couldn't be.

Rory, however, was persistent. "How we can we be outside the universe? The universe is everything."

Right, the Doctor thought, Companions. Questions. Real life calling. "Imagine a great big soap bubble with one of those tiny little bubbles on the outside." He told Rory, he wrapped his arm around the other man's shoulders and guided him back towards the TARDIS.

"Okay." Rory said, picturing it in his head. That made sense.

"Well, it's nothing like that." He patted Rory on the back and stepped up to the TARDIS. "Completely drained. Look at her." How was that possible? _Was_ that possible? He was distinctly reminded of another time, not too long ago, when the TARDIS had powered down. That had been an alternate universe though, this was outside the universe. Same principle applies I guess, the Doctor considered. He ignored the little voice in the back of his head that told him to hope. Nope. It had not been her words on that silver pipe. Nope. Most definitely not. Impossible.

"Wait." Amy said, catching on. She lifted a spatula as she leaned against a rusted and dirty washer. "So we're in a tiny bubble universe, sticking to the side of the bigger bubble universe?"

The Doctor continued to stroke the outside of the TARDIS, still distracted. "Yeah. No. But if it helps, yes." Right, yes, focus. He thought. Focus on the problem at hand. He stepped away from the TARDIS. "This place is full of rift energy. She'll probably refuel just by being here. Now, this place." He lifted up some dirt and threw it in the air. He analysed it as it fell back to the ground. "What do we think, eh? Gravity's almost Earth normal, air's breathable, but it smells like…"

"Armpits." Amy supplied as she wrinkled her nose.

"Armpits." The Doctor agreed with a laugh.

Rory stepped up to some hanging objects, cleaner then anything else around. "What about all this stuff? Where did this come from?" He tapped the object and it swung about.

"Well, there's a rift. Now and then stuff gets sucked through it. Not a bubble, a plughole. The universe has a plughole and we've just fallen down it."

"Thief! Thief!" A woman's voice called out from around one of the broken down spaceships. "You're my thief!" A dark, curly haired woman in a ratted teal dress ran towards the Doctor.

Two others raced out from behind her, a hunched over woman and a disfigured confederate solider. "She's dangerous. Guard yourselves." The woman hollered to the visitors. The curly haired one ran straight up to The Doctor, eyes wide.

"Look at you." She exclaimed, talking rather fast for even the Doctor. "Goodbye. No, not goodbye, what's the other one?" An idea sparked in her mind. This worked with my Wolf, she thought. Then she was kissing the Doctor. Oh! Her mind raced, this is quiet different from the usual with her Thief.

"Watch out. Careful. Keep back from her." The man pulled Idris off and she laughed in a half crazed manner. The Doctor went to wipe his mouth then – wait – no. There was something on the woman's lips. He knew that taste. "Welcome, strangers. Lovely. Sorry about the mad person."

The Doctor ignored the man. "Why am I a thief? What have I stolen?" This couldn't have anything to do with _her_. He thought desperately. She was gone. Besides, it'd been a whole regeneration since he – since they…no, it had to be something else.

"Oh it didn't work. It did work, has worked. For her." She'd hoped to make him see who she was, but maybe it was just her Wolf who could connect like that. Through the Vortex.

The Doctor's eyes narrowed dangerously. "Her _who_?" Oh, the woman thought, such a smart boy. Already on the case.

"Oh." The older woman gasped and held her side, tired from running after the curly haired woman. "Oh, we are sorry, my dove. She's off her head. They call me Auntie." She held out her hand to the Doctor. The Time Lord glanced sideways watching the crazy one touch Amy's hair and then continue on.

"And I'm Uncle. I'm everybody's Uncle. Just keep back from this one. She bites!" He ended on a holler.

"Do I?" The woman exclaimed, suddenly right beside the Doctor. "Excellent." She grabbed the Time Lord around the neck and bit down on his ear.

Uncle pulled the woman off of the Doctor again, as he hollered and stomped his foot. "Ow! Ow! Ow, ow, _ow_!"

The woman smiled brightly. "Biting's excellent. It's like kissing, only there's a winner."

"So sorry." Uncle apologized. "She's doolally."

"No, I'm not doolally. I'm, I'm. It's on the tip of my tongue." Her eyes widened again. "I've just had a new idea about kissing. Come here, you." She jumped forward and everyone moved again. The Doctor hid quickly behind the Ponds, as Auntie and Uncle pulled the crazy one back.

"No, Idris, no." Auntie scolded the woman.

Idris' eyes filled with sadness. "Oh, but now you're angry. No, you're not. You will be angry. The little boxes will make you angry."

"Sorry?" The Doctor stepped out from between the Ponds. "The little what? Boxes?" Oh no, The Doctor thought. Dread crept into his heart.

Idris grabbed the Time Lord's chin. She laughed. "Oh, ho, no. Your chin is hilarious." Then suddenly, as if from the middle of a conversation, she was talking to Rory. "It means the smell of dust after rain."

"What does?" He asked back.

"Petrichor."

"But I didn't ask."

"Not yet. But you will."

Auntie's eyes widened. "No, no, Idris. I think you should have a rest." They couldn't have a repeat of that blonde person, could they?

Idris nodded her head. "Rest. Yes, yes. Good idea. I'll just see if there's an off switch." Idris tipped to the side, collapsing. Rory jumped forward and just barely caught her before she hit the ground. He settled her on chair and checked her pulse.

"Is that it? She dead now. So sad." Uncle's comments as sentimental as they had ever been before.

Rory didn't even notice the other man's tone. "No, she's still breathing."

"Nephew, take Idris somewhere she can not bite people." The older man ordered, slightly arrogantly. He seemed almost sad that she was alive.

An Ood stepped toward the group of people.

The Doctor noticed him and clapped. "Oh, hello!"

Amy jumped back, away from the green eyed alien with intestine like body parts coming down from his mouth. "Doctor, what is that?"

"Oh, no, it's all right. It's an Ood. Oods are good. Love an Ood. Hello, Ood. Can't you talk?" The Doctor looked down and noticed the dead ball that was his communication device. "Oh, I see. It's damaged. May I? It might just be on the wrong frequency." The Ood nodded and the Doctor popped open the communication device.

Auntie nodded at the pair. "Nephew was broken when he came here. Why, he was half dead. House repaired him. House repaired all of us." She glanced down at her misshapen body.

The Doctor popped the communication device back together, now fixed. It lit up a bright green colour and emitted a series of voices trying to break through. "If you are receiving this message, please help me. Send a signal to the High Council of the Time Lords on Gallifrey. Tell them that I am still alive. I don't know where I am. I'm on some rock-like planet." Behind the main message, a voice the Doctor easily identified as the Corsair, were dozens of other voices. Time Lords. But one, he could have swore he heard some on say B–

"What was that?" Rory asked, confused. "Was that him?"

The Doctor shook his head. Voice hoarse, he tried to respond to what Rory had asked, "No, no. It's picking up something else. But that's, that's not possible." They couldn't be alive. They couldn't have said those words, not _her_ words. "That's, that's. Who else is here?" The Doctor turned to Uncle and Auntie. "Tell me. Show me. _Show me_."

Auntie took a step back from the angry Time Lord. "Just what you see. Just the four of us, and the House. Nephew, will you take Idris somewhere safe where she can't hurt nobody?" She avoided the Time Lord's gaze, lest he discover her lie.

"The House? What's the House?" The Doctor asked, maybe some Time Lords had survived. Yes, maybe they had. Focus on that, he thought, focus on _that_.

"House is all around you, my sweets. You are standing on him. This is the House. This world. Would you like to meet him?" Auntie smiled.

Rory took Amy's hand. "Meet him?" He didn't like the sound of that, or the way the Doctor was acting. He was getting a very bad feeling.

The Doctor clapped his hands together. "I'd love to." Of course, Rory thought.

Uncle nodded and began leading them away. "This way. Come, please. Come."

The three of them lingered back for a moment. Amy walked over to the Doctor, Rory still holding her hand. "What's wrong? What were those voices?"

The Doctor took a deep breath. "Time Lords." He couldn't help but smile. "It's not just the Corsair. Somewhere close by there are lots and lots of Time Lords."

Amy frowned. That wasn't possible. He'd said so himself. The Time Lords were dead.

* * *

The TARDIS woke up in a little cell with blankets strewn across the floor. Nephew stood guard to the side, watching the door to the entrance. But that wasn't right. He won't be there when the Doctor comes. Oh, not yet then, she realised.

Rose moaned and rolled over beside her, lying uncomfortably on the bed of blankets.

"Wolf." The TARDIS whispered kindly. Her poor Wolf. She shook the blonde lightly, a moment later the woman's golden green eyes blinked open. Rose shot forward and then groaned and held her head. "Easy does it, Nephew hit your head." The TARDIS nodded her head in the direction of the Ood, who paid them no attention.

"Bloody Oods." Rose grumbled. "Doctor loves 'em, but I've been attacked by them how many times now?" The TARDIS laughed, it sounded like bells. Rose looked up at the woman and smiled. "Right, so… how did this happen?"

"Oh right, yes. I have to tell, hasn't happened yet." Rose smiled, bemused. The TARDIS sat back and waited while the blonde got comfortable. They sat across from each other within the small confines of their cage. "I'm, I'm."

"The TARDIS." Rose supplied.

The TARDIS gasped happily. "Yes! That's it! I'm the TARDIS! Time And Relative Dimension In Space! Oh! Names are funny. I'm the TARDIS, the TARDIS Matrix to be exact. I've been deleted, removed from my home and put in here."

Rose shook her head, "Why though? Where's tha' Doctor, he would never have allowed this."

The TARDIS waved her hand, not too concerned. "Oh he's found out. Will find out, is finding out. Oh! Tenses are difficult!"

Rose laughed. "Righ', well I'm sure you'll get the hang of it, yeah? How 'bout we go find him? I'm sure he's more than a bit confused by now."

The brunette rolled her eyes. "He's fine, plenty busy with the strays."

"I'm sorry?" The only thing Rose could picture was the Doctor with a box full of stray cats, but he hated cats.

"Oh what's that word? Pee… Assist… Companions! That's it! Two new ones. Well old, well…"

Rose raised a hand to stop the babble she new the TARDIS was about to let loose. She was just like the Doctor. "What happened to Donna?" Rose had liked Donna, she was amazing. The Doctor Donna, how could the Doctor give her up?

The TARDIS didn't answer. With a sudden burst of clarity her manic presence had lacked before, she said, "He's different now."

Rose's heart sank. "You mean he regenerated."

The TARDIS didn't deny it.

* * *

Uncle gestured to the trio, ushering them into a room within the depths of a broken spaceship. "Come. Come, come. You can see the House and he can look at you."

The Doctor stepped up to a small platform with a metal grating. He looked down the shoot to the smoke-y green abyss beneath. "I see. This asteroid is sentient."

Auntie nodded. "We walk on his back, breathe his air, eat his food."

Amy smiled sarcastically. "Smell its armpits." She mocked.

Auntie and Uncle both straightened up suddenly, there voices deep and refined. "And do my will. You are most welcome, travellers."

Amy backed up into Rory who grabbed her shoulders, lending her strength. "Doctor, that voice. That's the asteroid talking?"

"Yes." Then the Doctor turned his back on Auntie and Uncle, talking to the entire planet. "So you're like a sea urchin. Hard outer surface, that's the planet we're walking on. Big, squashy, oogly thing inside, that's you." He bent down and inspected the dirt again, this time more closely than before.

"That is correct, Time Lord."

The Doctor jumped back up. "Ah. So you've met Time Lords before?"

"Many travellers have come through the rift, like Auntie and Uncle and Nephew. I repair them when they break."

"So there are Time Lords here, then?" The Doctor couldn't keep the hope out of his voice.

"Not any more, but there have been many TARDISES on my back in days gone by."

The Doctor took a deep breath. Of course not. "Well, there won't be any more after us. Last Time Lord. Last TARDIS."

"A pity. Your people were so kind. Be here in safety, Doctor. Rest, feed, if you will." Auntie and Uncle were suddenly released, the tension from before leaving their bodies.

Rory looked around then stepped toward the Doctor, as if to try and speak in confidence with the Time Lord. "We're not actually going to stay here, are we?"

The Doctor tossed his head back and forth, considering. "Well, it seems like a friendly planet. Literally. Mind if we poke around a bit?"

Auntie nodded and gestured out the door. "You can look all you want. Go. Look." She touched Amy's face, stroking her cheek. "House loves you." Amy made a face and quickly walked towards Rory.

The Doctor watched the interaction closely, his eyes on the woman's misshapen arm. "Come on then, gang. We're just going to, er, see the sights."

* * *

The TARDIS gasped suddenly in the middle of telling Rose about the Doctor's previous bodies and personalities. "He's coming."

Rose perked up instantly. "The Doctor? He's comin'?"

"Yes." The TARDIS frowned. "But you're not here."

"What do you mean I'm not here? I'm sittin' right here."

"Yes. But you won't be. Don't you see?" The TARDIS looked imploringly at Rose. The blonde's brows furrowed. She closed her eyes and focused on the future timeline that they were currently existing in. The TARDIS was right. Her place jumped from here to the TARDIS, she should be there in a manner of minutes. Rose opened her eyes to the smiling woman before her.

"Right, I'll use my vortex manipulator. It'll put me off just in front of the box, I think."

The TARDIS rolled her eyes and smiled lovingly, "No need. You're part Time Vortex, you can pop in and out of there any time you want. Vortex manipulator or not."

Rose raised her eye brows. That was certainly handy information. The two girls stood and smiled at one another. "It was wonderful to meet you TARDIS."

"Oh and you!" The TARDIS grasped Rose's shoulders and pulled her in for another kiss. After a moment, Rose pulled back and laughed.

"Will we ever get to do this again?"

"Oh Wolf, you can kiss my console any time." The brunette responded with a saucy wink.

Rose laughed, shocked at the response. "TARDIS! No, I mean. Talk. Will we ever get to talk like this?"

The TARDIS' smile softened and she gazed lovingly at the Wolf. "The Doctor will never be able to understand to what extent we are connected, _Rose_."

Rose smiled, her special one she usually only ever gave to the Doctor, with a little bit of tongue poking out between her teeth. "That's not really an answer, is it?"

The TARDIS laughed, "No, it's not." Then she kissed the Wolf one last time, lightly on the lips. Her fingers ghosted over the vortex manipulator, she activated it and sent the companion on her way.

_POP!_

* * *

Rory turned around in the hall they were in. He looked to the Doctor expectantly. "So, as soon as the TARDIS is refuelled, we go, yeah?"

The Doctor shooK his head. "No. There are Time Lords here. I heard them and they need me."

Amy stepped towards the Doctor. "You told me about your people, and you told me what you did."

"Yes, yes, but if they're like the Corsair, they're good ones and I can save them." He looked at Amy with big green eyes, and if it were any other person, Amy would have said watery too.

"And then tell them you destroyed the others?" She crossed her arms. This was only going to end painfully for him. She could already tell.

"I can explain. Tell them why I had to." His hands gestured in what Amy recognised as his attempt to implore another.

Amy would have none of it. "You want to be forgiven." You won't be, she thought.

The Doctor smiled bitterly. "Don't we all?"

But he was her friend. Amy nodded once, her mind made up. "What do you need from me?"

The Doctor smiled. Oh Amelia Pond. "My screwdriver. I left it in the TARDIS. It's in my jacket."

Rory shook his head, confused. "You're wearing your jacket."

"My other jacket." The Time Lord replied, then proceeded to give the man a look like he'd dribbled on his shirt.

"You have two of those?"

The Doctor took that offensively. He opened his mouth with a comeback but Amy cut him off. "Okay, I'll get it. But Doctor, listen to me. Don't get emotional because that's when you make mistakes." Amy pulled out her mobile and tossed it to the Time Lord.

The Doctor smiled and saluted. "Yes, boss."

"I'll call you from the TARDIS. Rory, look after him." Amy turned and left down the hallway to head back to the TARDIS.

A small grin on his face, he pointed in the direction Amy had just gone. "Rory, look after her."

Rory looked back and forth between the two. He nodded once. "Yeah." Then he turned and headed after his wife.

Amy glanced behind her as she heard footsteps approach. She saw her husband and rolled her eyes. Of course. "I told you to look after him."

"He'll be fine. He's a Time Lord." Rory shrugged and nodded once. They stepped up to the TARDIS.

Amy paused and turned to her husband. "It's just what they're called. It doesn't mean he actually knows what he's doing." Then she pushed open the TARDIS doors and he followed her inside.

As the doors closed, a green smoke swam up from the ground. It enveloped the TARDIS and quickly spiralled up the length of the powered down machine.

Amy climbed up the TARDIS steps to the main console. She pulled the phone off its hook and dialed her cell phone.

The Doctor picked up on the first ring.

"Hey, we're here." She informed him. "Screwdriver's in your jacket, yeah?"

"_Yeah, it's around somewhere. Have a good look_."

The sound of something locking echoed through the TARDIS. Amy looked up at Rory. "Did you do that?" She hung up the phone.

Rory gestured with his hands, and shook his head. "I didn't do anything. Right. Jacket." They both began looking for the Doctor's other jacket.

* * *

"Come on. Where are you? Now, where are you all? Where are you?" The Doctor wandered about the spaceship. The Time Lords had to be here somewhere. He wouldn't hear those voices if they weren't. He pulled back the curtain to a small alcove and popped his head in. "Well, they can't all be in here." The alcove was tiny, with rock walls and curtain doorways, no one could hide there.

Soft voices whispered through the alcove. The Doctor froze. What? He turned on his heel and looked at the small cupboard that sat just at eyelevel. The whispers continued. He opened the cupboard and found ten little glowing boxes. Ten of them. The same as the one that had brought him here. His face grew dark as the voices washed over him. Distress calls. These boxes were distress calls.

The Doctor turned to Auntie and Uncle who stood silently behind him.

"Just admiring your Time Lord distress signal collection." He told them lightly. But something dark lurked beneath that voice. "Nice job. Brilliant job. Really thought I had some friends here, but this is what the Ood translator picked up. Cries for help from the long dead. How many Time Lords have you lured here the way you lured me, and what happened to them all?"

Auntie swallowed and looked about. Anything but into the Time Lord's dark eyes. "House, House is kind and he is wise."

"House repairs you when you break. Yes, I know. But how does he mend you?" The Doctor rounded on Uncle. "You've got the eyes of a twenty year old."

Uncle smiled and ducked his head bashfully. "Thank you."

"No." The Doctor's voice grew darker. "Oh, no, I mean it literally. Your eyes are thirty years younger than the rest of you. Your ears don't match, your right arm is two inches longer than you're left, and how's your dancing? Because you've got two left feet. Patchwork people. You've been repaired and patched up so often, I doubt there's anything left of what used to be you. I had an umbrella like you once." He spat the end at their feet. Then the Doctor saw it, right in the corner of his eye.

He grabbed Auntie's arm, the one that was about three sizes too big. He turned it over and right there on this wrist, a snake tattoo. Just like the Corsair."

"Oh, now, it's been a great arm for me, this." Auntie defended.

"Corsair."

Auntie and Uncle didn't seem to see the tension in the Doctor. That or they simply did not care. "He was a strapping big bloke, wasn't he, Uncle?"

"Big fellow."

"I got the arm and then Uncle got the spine and the kidneys."

Uncle nodded. "Kidneys."

The Doctor stepped towards them. One step. Slow and deliberate. He looked them in the eye, his own eyes dark and haunting. "You gave me hope, and then you took it away. That's enough to make anyone dangerous. God knows what it will do to me. Basically, _run_!"

Uncle and Auntie jumped at his tone. Then Uncle stepped forward a bit. "Poor old Time Lord. Too late. House is too clever." The pair turned and hobbled off. The Doctor glared as they left. He could still hear the voices of the dead Time Lords behind him. It wasn't helping.

The Doctor's phone rang. He pulled it out as he stormed away from the cubes.

Amy spoke from the other end of the phone. "_No sonic screwdriver. Also the doors seemed to have locked behind us. Rory thinks there's a perfectly innocent explanation, but I think you lied to us_."

"Time Lord stuff. Needed you out of the way." Rory, so much faith, just like – no. But he'd hear those words, he could have sworn… On the voice feed… from the boxes. The _little boxes_.

"_What, we're not good enough for your smart new friends?_"

"The boxes will make you angry. How could she know?"

"_Doctor, what are you talking about?_"

The Doctor was running now. "Stay put. Stay exactly where you are." He hung up.

The Doctor raced through the door to where they had put Idris. She was sitting in her cage with her legs crossed and her eyes closed, meditating. She seemed completely at ease with being locked up. "How did you know about the boxes? You said they'd make me angry. How did you know?"

She opened her eyes, they brightened when they landed on him. "Ah, it's my thief."

"Who _are_ you?" She could be psychic. She could be telepathic – no. That didn't account for foreknowledge.

Idris smiled and rolled her eyes. "It's about time." He really was so useless without the Wolf.

"I don't understand. Who are you?"

"Do you not know me? Just because they put me in here?"

He shook his head. How was that relevant? "They said you were dangerous."

"Not the cage, stupid." Idris lifted her hands and placed them on either side of her face. "In here. They put me in here. I'm the. Oh, you know what? You are quite slow. She figured it out in seconds."

"You mentioned a she before, she who?"

Idris smiled wickedly. "I'm the TARDIS."

The Doctor frowned. "No, you're not. You're a bitey, mad lady. The TARDIS is up and downy stuff in a big blue box."

Idris stood up and brushed off her skirts. "Yes, that's me. A Type Forty Tardis. I was already a museum piece when you were young, and the first time you touched my console you said–"

"I said you were the most beautiful thing I had ever known."

Idris grabbed the bars of the cage and leaned toward the Time Lord. "And then you stole me. And I stole you."

"I borrowed you."

She smirked. "Borrowing implies the intention to return the thing that was taken. What makes you think I would ever give you back?"

"You're the TARDIS?" He questioned, still disbelieving. How could it be?

"Yes." He really was much too difficult to convince.

"My TARDIS?"

"My Doctor. Oh. We have now reached the point in the conversation where you open the lock."

The Doctor pulled out his sonic and used it on the cage. With a soft click, the door swung open. The TARDIS stepped out of her prison, a slight sway to her hips as if she were dancing.

She looked up at her Time Lord questioningly. "Are all people like this?"

No matter how hard he tried, he simply could not get the awe struck look off his face. "Like what?"

"So much bigger on the inside. I'm, oh, what is that word? It's so big, so complicated. It's so sad."

The Doctor's mind was already racing past her words. He was onto more important things. "But why? Why pull the living soul from a TARDIS and pop it in a tiny human head? What does it want you for?"

The TARDIS smiled wonderfully. "She asked that too!"

"She who!" The Doctor yelled. Who else was on this planet?!

"House eats TARDISES." The TARDIS said abruptly.

He shook his head. "House _what_? What do you mean?"

"I don't know. It's something I heard you say."

"When?"

"In the future."

"House eats TARDISES?"

"There you go."

The Doctor's eyes widened. "Oh but of course. House feeds on rift energy and TARDISES are bursting with it." He frowned. "But you can't eat a TARDIS. It would destroy you. Unless, unless…"

"Unless you deleted the TARDIS Matrix first." The TARDIS supplied. "But House can't just delete a TARIS' consciousness. That would blow a hole in the universe. So he pulls out the Matrix, sticks it in a living receptacle and then it feeds off the remaining Artron energy." She gasped in air and then raised her eyebrows. "Oh. You were about to say all that. I don't suppose you have to now."

The Doctor's eyes filled with horror. "I sent Amy and Rory in there. They'll be eaten." The Doctor pulled out his phone and began running towards the TARDIS. "Amy! Amy? Rory? Get the hell out of there."

* * *

Amy paced back and forth in front of the console. "He's not trusting us and he's being emotional. This is bad. This is very, very bad."

Rory nodded. "Yeah, I think it probably is."

"Sometimes I hate being right."

_POP!_

Amy and Rory both turned towards the doors. A woman stood with her back to them. She was average height with honey blonde hair and a deep blue leather jacket. She wore black trousers and matching black combat boots. How on earth had she entered the TARDIS?

Amy and Rory stepped towards the stairs. "Umm… who are you?" Amy asked rudely. "And how did you get in the TARDIS?"

The woman turned around and Amy could see, even in the darkness of the powered down TARDIS, that she was beautiful. She had full, pouting lips, and sharp cheekbones with big hazel eyes. She was young too, that stood out beyond all else. She was very young, younger looking than Amy and Rory themselves.

"Oh, hello!"

"Who are you?" Amy repeated forcefully.

The blonde's smile turned awkward. "I'm Rose." No recognition. Of course, Rose thought. No, right. Why would he talk about her? She stuck out her hand and walked towards the bottom of the steps. "Rose Tyler."

Rory and Amy cautiously walked down the steps and shook her hand. "I'm Rory Williams. This is my wife, Amy."

The blonde's brows rose. She whistled. "A married couple. I never thought I'd see the day the Doctor allowed domestic on his ship."

"How do you know the Doctor?" Rory asked, cautious of the fact that the woman still hadn't mentioned how she had entered the TARDIS.

Rose's smile softened, "I used to be a companion of the Doctor's. Like yourselves. I travelled with him." The couple nodded.

"Right. Yes. Sorry. But how did you get in here?"

"Oh! Just used this." Rose lifted the sleeve of her leather jacket and showed them her sleek vortex manipulator.

Amy frowned. "And what is that?"

Rose raised a brow at her sharp tone. "Vortex manipulator. Better question though, what are you both doin' in the TARDIS. You're outside the universe! Hell of a day to call in sick."

"The Doctor told us to stay in the TARDIS." Rory informed her.

A look of pure astonishment crossed Rose's face. "And you're gonna listen to 'im?"

Amy couldn't help the grin that spread across her face. It darkened quickly though, and she said, "He locked us in."

Rose smiled brightly, it seemed to light up the room. "Oh, well that's easy enough to fix." Rose pulled out a long, cylinder looking tube. A sonic screwdriver. She turned towards the door and began work on undoing the Doctor's locking mechanisms.

Amy and Rory followed closely behind. Amy crossed her arms, still suspicious of the woman. "That's a sonic screwdriver. Where'd you get that?"

Rose didn't even look up from her work. "I made it."

Rory frowned. "It looks like your vortex whatever-thing-y."

"Made that too."

"But what is it?"

Rose paused in her work and straightened. She turned to them and for the first time saw all the burning questions in their eyes. Vaguely, she wondered if this was what the Doctor always felt like. "A vortex manipulator is a time travel device. It allows the wearer to teleport through space, as well as time. I made this one myself. I also made the sonic screwdriver. I linked the systems up so they work in sync. The screwdriver is, however, modelled after my late husbands design."

Rose turned back to the lock and tried to open it up again. She frowned. "Something else has locked this."

The glow of the console turned an unearthly shade of green. The three companions turned towards the centre of the room, dread in the pits of their stomachs. "Oh no."

Amy's phone rang. "Doctor, something's wrong."

"_It's House. He's after the Tardis. Just get out both of you._"

"We can't. Something else has locked the door."

"_But I've unlocked it_."

"Yes, and something else has locked it again."

"_Wait, but how can you know that?_"

The Cloister bell sounded and the green glow of the console flickered in an out of life.

"Doctor," Amy whispered, "I don't like this."

The three of them could hear the Doctor, just outside the doors as he hollered to get inside. Rose struggled to open the door but nothing would work. She debated using her vortex manipulator, but then the TARDIS would be gone. If she stayed here, then at least they'd have a fighting chance of saving her.

"Rory, hold my hand."

* * *

The Doctor stared at the spot where the blue box once stood. No. He raced back to the TARDIS, his human TARDIS. "It's gone." He informed her, his voice dead event to his own ears.

"Eaten?" She asked the question as if it were of no concern to her. She was meditating again, the Doctor realised

"No, it left. Not eaten, hi-jacked. But why?" The Doctor turned and saw Auntie and Uncle with blankets over their shoulders, getting comfortable on some chairs they'd set up.

Auntie smiled at him. "It's time for us both to go, and keep together."

The Doctor's brows furrowed. "Whoa, whoa, whoa. Go? What do you mean, go? Where are you going?" They couldn't go. He needed all the help he could get if he was going to get the TARDIS back.

"Well, we're dying, my love. It's time for Auntie and Uncle to pop off."

Uncle made a face. "I'm against it."

"It's your fault, isn't it, sweets? Because you told House it was the last TARDIS. House can't feed on them if there's none more coming, can he?"

"So now he's off to your universe to find more TARDISES." Uncle glared.

The Doctor glared right back. "It won't."

"Oh, it'll think of something." Auntie collapsed to the ground. Dead. The Doctor rushed over and checked her pulse.

Uncle nodded. "Actually, I feel fine." He collapsed to he ground next, also dead. The Doctor leapt over to the man, confirming what he already knew.

The Doctor growled. "Not dead. You can't just die!" He ran his hands through his hair. This was ridiculous.

"We need to go to where I landed, Doctor, quickly."

The Doctor threw his arms up and sighed. "Why?"

"Because we are there in three minutes." The TARDIS jumped up and grabbed the Doctor's hand. "We need to go now." They began to run then stopped just as suddenly. The TARDIS bent over and clutched her side. "Ow. Roughly how long do these bodies last?" She looked up at the Time Lord, unconcerned.

"You're dying."

"Yes, of course I'm dying." She said in a voice that made him feel like an idiot. New feeling. "I don't belong in a flesh body. I could blow the casing in no time. No, stop it. Don't get emotional. Hmm. That's what the orangey girl says. You're the Doctor. Focus."

"On what? How? I'm a madman with a box, without a box. I'm stuck down the plughole at the end of the universe on a stupid old junkyard. Ooo…" His eyes lit up at the same time his head looked up, like a dog catching sight of a squirrel.

The TARDIS looked at him sharply. "Ooo what?"

"I'm not." He said excitedly.

"Not what?"

"Because it's not a junkyard. Don't you see? It's not a junkyard." He laughed and grabbed her hand again.

"What is it then?" The TARDIS asked, thoroughly exasperated.

"It's a TARDIS junkyard. Come on!" The Doctor paused and the turned back to her. "Oh, sorry. Do you have a name?"

"Seven hundred years, finally he asks." She huffed. She fixed her hair and stared coolly at the Time Lord.

"But what do I call you?" He responded, nonplussed.

"I think you call me," She smiled saucily, as she had at the Wolf, "Sexy."

The Doctor's eyes widened. He looked around. "Only when we're alone." He whispered.

Her smile widened. "We are alone."

The Doctor thought for a second and glanced around again. Then, he returned her saucy smile with one of his own and tugged her hand. "Come on then, Sexy."

They crested the hill of metal and trash. A picture of TARDISES strewn out across a vast stretch of land fell before them. A strong sense of hope invaded the Doctor's heart, this was hope.

"A valley of half eaten TARDISES. Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" He smiled excitedly.

"I'm thinking that all of my sisters are dead. That they were devoured, and that we are looking at their corpses."

The Doctor looked sideways at the TARDIS. His smile faded a bit. He hadn't even considered that side of it. Oops. "Ah. Sorry. No, I wasn't thinking that."

"No. You were thinking you could build a working TARDIS console out of broken remnants of a hundred different models." She turned and levelled her heavy stare on him. "And you don't care that it's impossible."

At that, the Doctor smiled again. "It's not impossible as long as we're alive. Rory and Amy need me. So yeah, we're going to build a TARDIS." And the Wolf too, The TARDIS thought. She would be on the TARDIS, and if she were lucky, House wouldn't figure out her little inability to die.


	2. The Doctor's Wife (Part Two)

"Listen," Rory said, he grabbed Amy's hands in his own and held them to his chest, "whatever happens, at least we're together. And we're in the TARDIS, so we're safe."

"Yeah." Amy nodded, not really believing it. She glanced over to Rose who was still standing by the door, her hand softly touching it. She'd been like that since the Doctor had come banging on the other side of them. Amy briefly wondered how long it'd been since she'd seen the Doctor. It couldn't have been too long; the woman looked barely out of her teenage years.

"You're half right." A deep, posh voice informed them. Amy and Rory froze, recognizing it as House. Rose turned around and looked towards the console, her face dark. "I mean, you are in the TARDIS. What a great adventure. I should have done this half a million years ago. So, Amy, Rory, and – oh. Our visitor from before, we've never been formally introduced. How rude of me. I'm House. Who, are _you_?"

Rose took a breath and stepped forward. "I'm Rose Tyler, Defender of the Earth. And if you think I'm gonna let you just pop back into my universe, you've got another thing comin'."

"Oh?" If House had a body, he'd be smiling. "Then why shouldn't I just kill you now?"

"Because killing us quickly wouldn't be any fun." Rory said hurriedly. He glanced at Rose who smiled and nodded. "And you need fun, don't you? That's what Uncle and Auntie were for, wasn't it? Someone to make suffer. I had a PE teacher just like you." Rose snorted. "You need to be entertained, and killing us quickly wouldn't be entertainment."

"So entertain me. Run."

Rory grabbed Amy's hand and they raced out of the console room, Rose right behind them. They twisted down the corridors, all of them darkened and grey. Footsteps echoed around them as their feet pounded against the metal ground. It was different, Rose belatedly realised. The walls were no longer coral and the ground wasn't so much of a metal grating anymore, more of a steel look. She missed it, the earthy look of the TARDIS. Or maybe she simply missed the life of it. Dark and powered down, it felt so dead inside the once magnificent ship.

Rose slammed her hand down on a button beside one of the doors. "This way." She called to Amy and Rory. The couple swiftly turned and followed her into the new corridor. Their run turned to a brisk walk, Rose was at the front now and she deliberately slowed it down.

"Uhmmm… Shouldn't we be running?" Rory asked.

Rose nodded. "Yup, but if we don't slow down for a mo' then we won't be able to keep the pace."

Rory's brow furrowed as he considered her words. He nodded his head. "Right."

"So what do we do?" Amy questioned "We can't kill House."

Rose glanced over her shoulder at the red head. "'Course we can't. But I'm assuming the Doctor will eventually find a way back onto the TARDIS. He usually does."

"And in the mean time?"

"We stay alive."

Amy sighed. Where was the Doctor? How was he even going to get onto the TARDIS?

The trio kept up a pace of running and then slowing to a jog and ending in a brisk walk, then speeding back to the jog and running again. They continued the cycle for some time. Nothing seemed to be happening. It was during one of their lulls in which they were walking that Amy decided to pick the conversation back up.

"So how old were you then?" Amy asked Rose, the three of them walking side by side. "When you met the Doctor that is." She was trying to gage just how experienced this Rose was. She seemed so young.

"'Bout nineteen."

Rory's brows rose. "Couldn't have travelled with him for long then? You barely look twenty one."

Rose laughed, but neither Amy nor Rory could see what was so funny. "I travelled with the Doctor for two years. Known him years longer though." She smiled nostalgically. "Is a bit complicated." Rose waved her hand airily.

Amy moved forward and opened the next door in the corridor. It slid open and she stepped through. "Yeah, well, it's not like we don't have time."

"Yeah," Rose started to say when the door quickly slammed shut. She raced forward and slammed her hand on the release button. Nothing. "Amy? Amy!"

Rory continued to slam his hands against the door. "Damn it! Where is she?"

Rose bent down beside the release panel and pulled out her sonic. "I assume she's just on the other side of the door. I might be able to release the lock."

"Amy!" Rory hollered. He leaned his ear against the door and listened intently. "Oh my god. If he hurts her. I – I…"

"He won't." Rory looked down at the blonde. Her eyes seemed to glow gold in the dark, fierce and deadly. "Don't worry Rory Williams. Amy will be fine." She turned back to the release button and opened the lock. The door slid open and Amy threw herself into Rory's arms.

"Oh my god. Oh my god. Rory!" She clung to her husband as if she hadn't seen him in years. "Thank god, I thought you were…"

Rory stroked Amy's hair back from her face. "I'm fine. Now come on. House is only getting started. We need to get moving."

Rose nodded and took the lead. "He'll want to separate us again. He'll be able to play with us that way. Anything he shows is just fake though, they're illusions, so don't believe them. He may be inside the TARDIS, but he doesn't have control of time. He isn't connected to it in any way."

Amy stared holes into the back of the blonde's head. She trusted the woman, but how did she know so much? "How do you know?"

Rose turned around. "I know because I'd sense it if he could. Enough questions, we need to keep moving." Her eyes glowed gold and Rory realised that they hadn't seemed to be gold earlier. They really were glowing gold. They'd instantly assumed she was human, but now Rory felt oddly naïve.

They reached a vertical corridor, the first so far. Rose almost fell down, but Amy grabbed her waist and pulled her back. Air rushed up from the empty hall, blowing back the women's hair as they stood before it.

"So are we having fun yet?" House's deep voiced echoed around them. They all looked up and glared. "I'm rather enjoying the sensation of having you running around inside me."

Rose made a face. "Yeah, cause that's not perverted." Rory snorted.

House continued on, as if he hadn't heard her. "I've turned off the corridor anti-gravs, so do be careful."

Rose nodded once, considering. "Well, he may be a psychopath. But you can't say anything 'bout his manners." Amy rolled her eyes. She sounded like the Doctor, using witty banter in the middle of a life or death situation.

"Come on." She said gruffly, and then edged her way around the vertical drop of the corridor. Rory followed her, Rose took up the rear. They slid their feet along the small edge provided by the corridor drop. Once they reached the other side, they picked up the pace and began running again.

Rose worried her lip with her teeth as they ran. She could keep this up forever, literally. But she wasn't sure how long Amy and Rory would last. She glanced at the red head. Amy in particular. Rose wasn't sure what it was, but something was wrong with Amy. She simply hoped it wouldn't cause her to collapse at any moment. The last thing they needed was a fainting ginger.

* * *

The TARDIS picked up a piece of junk from the pile of possibly useful mechanics that could be utilised to build a working TARDIS console. "Bond the tube directly into the Tachyon Diverter." She instructed the Doctor.

He rolled his eyes as he dragged a wall towards their building area. "Yes, yes, I have actually rebuilt a TARDIS before, you know. I know what I'm doing." He turned and grasped the rope with both hands and pulled with all his strength. The wall, lying down on one of its faces, didn't even move.

The TARDIS laughed, though it sounded more like a scoff. "You're like a nine year old trying to rebuild a motorbike in his bedroom." She turned and raised an eyebrow at him. "And you never read the instructions."

The Doctor's mouth dropped open and he quickly spun back around to face his TARDIS. "I always read the instructions."

The TARDIS stepped forward challengingly. "There's a sign on my front door. You have been walking past it for seven hundred years. What does it say?" She crossed her arms.

The Doctor frowned as he thought furiously. He turned back and pulled on the rope. "That's not instructions." He deflected.

The TARDIS raised an eyebrow and waited for him to face her again. When he finally did, she raised both her brows. "There's an instruction at the bottom. What does it say?" A glimmer of a smile tugged at her lips, oh she had him now.

"Pull to open." He almost sighed in relief. Close one.

"Yes." But she wasn't done yet. "And what do you do?"

The Doctor frowned. "I push." He growled lowly.

The TARDIS looked heavenward. "Every single time. Seven hundred years. Police Box doors open _out_ the way."

The Doctor pulled the rope over his shoulder with all his rage fuelling him through. "I think I have earned the right to open my front doors any way I want."

"Your front doors?" The TARDIS definitely scoffed that time. "Have you any idea how childish that sounds?"

"You are not my mother."

"And you are not my child."

Fed up, the Doctor dropped the rope and stalked over to the infuriating woman – time and space ship – whatever. "You know, since we're talking with mouths, not really an opportunity that comes along very often, I just want to say, you know, you have never been very reliable." The TARDIS instantly straightened up.

"And you have?"

"You didn't always take me where I wanted to go." He accused with a pointed finger.

The TARDIS' brows furrowed. Really? She thought, he honestly didn't see it? "No, but I always took you where you _needed_ to go."

The Doctor froze. He looked at her, really looked at her. Then he realised. "You did." His face broke into a wide smile. "Look at us talking. Wouldn't it be amazing if we could always talk, even when you're stuck inside the box?"

The TARDIS frowned. "You know I'm not constructed that way. I exist across all space and time, and you talk and run around," she gestured with her hand in a flippant manner, "and bring home strays."

The Doctor laughed. "Strays! Is that what you call them?"

She rolled her eyes and groaned. "Oh you sound just like her."

He froze. Again, she'd said it again. He stared into the TARDIS' eyes, deadly serious. "Her who? No – don't change the subject. You've mentioned her multiple times now. Her _who_?" The TARDIS' knees buckled and she fell forward. The Doctor caught her and helped her stand up right. "Are you okay?"

The TARDIS grasped her side, her face twisted in pain. "One of the kidneys has already failed. It doesn't matter. We need to finish assembling the console."

The Doctor glanced over at their half assembled mess of a machine. "Using a console without a proper shell. It's not going to be safe." He commented softly.

The TARDIS swallowed and straightened up. She held her head high and looked to her Time Lord. "This body has about eighteen minutes left to live. The universe we're in will reach Absolute Zero in three hours. Safe is relative."

The Doctor smirked. "Then we need to get a move on. Eh, old girl?"

Not too long later, the Doctor was finishing up the finale touches. He attached some ropes around the console and checked the spring on a button that'd previously sprung off. "Right. Okay, let's go. Follow that TARDIS." The Doctor pushed pulled down on the main lever of the console. Nothing happened. The Doctor's face fell. "Oh no, come on. There's rift energy everywhere. You can do it. Okay, diverting all power to thrust. Let's be having you." He pulled a knob and pushed a few buttons then pulled the same lever down again.

Huge sparks erupted from the console. The Doctor and the TARDIS both jumped back as insidious black smoke erupted from the rotor.

The Doctor hopped forward again a second later, frantic. "No, no, no, no."

"What's wrong?" The TARDIS looked all around the console but for the life of her couldn't see it. She flew her ship naturally without thought, this was another thing entirely.

"It can't hold the charge. It can't even start. There's no power. I've got nothing." He slammed his hand down. How was he supposed to save the Ponds now? House would escape into the universe and destroy it as he searched for any remaining Time Lords.

The TARDIS smiled lovingly at her Time Lord. "Oh, my beautiful idiot. You have what you've always had. You've got me." She then raised two fingers to her lips and kissed them. Golden energy, the Time Vortex, glowed in her eyes and around her fingers. She touched the rotor and it roared to life.

The Doctor grabbed hold of the console and laughed as they began to dematerialise. He hid the sorrow, the painful memory that had surfaced with the golden look of hers. It was the same as another woman's eyes, all those years ago.

No. He wouldn't fall back into that endless pit of despair. A pit he'd only just learned had a ladder to get out of. No, he wouldn't 'open that can of worms' as it were.

"Whoo hoo!" He whooped as they flew threw the Time Vortex. It was rough and loud. Something a kin to wind roared around them and he decided that it was rather magnificent. In all, a much nicer thought to focus on.

The TARDIS hollered across the console to him. "We've locked on to them. They'll have to lower the shields when I'm close enough to phase inside."

The Doctor flipped a few switches and read the readout on the screen. "Can you get a message to Amy? The telepathic circuits are online."

The TARDIS frowned. That would be far too much work, she decided. She nodded at him anyways. Silly Time Lord, always taking the harder course of action. Of course, he didn't know Rose was on board, or that she had even left her universe. He suspected something, the TARDIS could tell, but there was nothing substantial enough for him yet. He wanted so desperately for her to be happy. She soon would be.

* * *

Rose wrapped her arm around the rung of the ladder and pressed the heel of her palm against her forehead. Rory glanced up at her worriedly. "What's wrong?" He hollered past the wind of the vertical corridor.

Rose shook her head.

"_Wolf! Wooooolf!_"

Rose blinked. The TARDIS?

_TARDIS?_ The woman tentatively reached out with her mind to the other.

"_Hello, dear_." Her voice sounded within her skull. It was strange, having someone inside her mind who wasn't the Doctor, and after so long.

"Rose what's wrong?" Rory called up to her.

"I'm gettin' a message. Is telepathic."

Amy looked down from above Rose. Her face smiled down at the blonde. "The Doctor?"

"_You have to go to the old control room_." The TARDIS instructed before Rose could reply. "_I'm putting the route in your head. When you get there use the purple slider on the nearest panel to lower the shields_." Rose nodded her head and sent back an affirmative to the TARDIS. "_You'll have about twelve seconds before the room goes into phase with the invading Matrix. I'll send you the pass key when you get there. Good luck_."

"Rose?" Amy asked, sounding as worried as her husband usually did.

"'M fine!" She hollered up to the red head. "We have to keep going! 'S farther up that way!"

They continued climbing and when they reached the correct floor, Rose hollered up to Amy to step off the ladder. She waited while Rose and Rory followed her up.

Amy smiled excitedly at the blonde when she made it to the horizontal flooring. "It was the Doctor right?! He's on his way."

Rose couldn't resist smiling back. "It was the TARDIS actually."

Rory, who'd just made it off the ladder, frowned. He looked around the darkened hallway. "I thought this was the TARDIS."

Rose began walking down the hallway at a very fast pace. The other two easily kept up the same speed by her side. "Yeah, it is. But it's not."

Amy rolled her eyes. "Now you sound like the Doctor."

Rose laughed. "Mum used to say that all the time. No," she shook her head, "this is just the shell. In order for House to control it like he is, he's got to get rid of the mind first, yeah? He deleted the TARDIS Matrix and put her in a woman."

"Wait," Amy said, catching on faster then her husband, "that woman then? The one who kissed the Doctor? _That's_ the TARDIS."

"Yup!" Rose replied, popping the 'p' again. "She sent me a message." Rose tapped the side of her head, "Telepathic me. Be a bit more difficult to get a hold of either of you. Though I'm sure she could manage. She _is_ magnificent." Rory raised his eyebrows. She really did sound just like the Doctor, maybe just a bit less posh.

Amy froze. "What happened to the lights?" She raised her arms in front of her, the way one did in the dark to keep from running into walls.

Rory and Rose paused. They glanced at each other and shrugged. "The lights are fine." Rory told Amy. He took her hand and her other instantly went to his face.

"House is messing with our heads again." Rose informed them. She looked about for a light switch.

"Oi!" Rory called after her as she headed down the corridor. "Where do you think you're going?"

"What?" Amy asked. "What's she doing?"

Rose glanced over her shoulder as she turned down the hall. "Just checkin' for a light!" She yelped and jumped backward when she saw the Ood standing there. Nephew swung his arm and Rose quickly blocked it with her forearm. She kicked the alien in the stomach and ran back down the hall. She grabbed Rory's arm and pulled him down the hall the way they'd come. Rory dragged Amy along with him as Rose led them down a different path to their destination.

Amy shook Rory's hand off her wrist. "I can see now, Rory. I can see." He nodded at her and let go. The three paused and caught their breaths.

"It was the Ood." Rose told them as she leaned down over her knees. "Nephew. And he's still comin'. We've got to move. Come on, now."

They half jogged down the pathway and Rose turned abruptly right. Another vertical chamber stood in their way. She jumped back before she fell and let out a sigh. The three edged there way around it, as they had with all the other vertical hallways they'd come across. Once on the other side, they were faced with a dead end. "This is it." Rose said with a nod. "I had to go a different way 'cause of the Ood. But this is it. I recognise the entrance."

Amy looked down the way they'd come and crossed her arms. "Well open it then."

Rose shrugged with a shake of her head. "The TARDIS said she'd –" She cut off abruptly and closed her eyes. "Crimson. Eleven. Delight. Petrichor." Rose recited. "That's the pass code."

"Petrichor?" Amy wondered allowed. What the hell was that?

"What do we do?" Rory asked frantically. They were running out of time, they had to be running out of time. "Do we say it? Crimson. Eleven. Delight. Petrichor. I said it." He gestured with his hands for the doors to open. They remained closed.

No. Rose thought, the TARDIS is telepathic. The pass code would be then too. She looked to Amy, her face scrunched up in thought. Almost there, Rose grinned.

Amy tapped her chin as she thought. "Petrichor. Petrichor." Where had she heard that before?

"I said it." Rory said desperately. He turned to Rose who was grinning at his wife.

He turned to Amy. Her eyes lit up just as he looked to her. "Petrichor!" She exclaimed triumphantly. "She told you what it meant. The smell of wet dust, remember? So, oh, it's the meaning, not the word."

Rose nodded; her grin a smile now. "The TARDIS interface is telepathic. You don't say it, you think it." A light shuffle of steps sounded at the end of the corridor. The three companions turned to see the Ood down the hall.

"It's coming." Rory supplied.

Rose nodded. "I can't help with him." She looked up. "But I can distract House." House was sentient, Rose briefly considered, did that me he could kill her? She didn't know, but she was definitely about to.

Behind her, Amy was plugging her ears, whispering the codes over and over again as she thought of an event for each. "Crimson. Eleven. Delight. The smell of dust after rain."

Rory looked worriedly to Rose. She had that look in her eye, the same self sacrificing look the Doctor got. "How do you mean?"

The door slid open.

Rose turned and pointed to a lever. "That one there. That'll lower the shields and let the Doctor in. Go!" Rory ran into the coral looking control room without a second glance.

Rose turned to Amy and grabbed the woman by the shoulders. "Amy. Do you love the Doctor?" Amy nodded. "I'm going to buy him some time."

Her eyes widened. "What? No! What are you doing? Don't – whatever it is. Don't." She grabbed the other woman's arms, almost mirroring her position.

Rose shook her head. "It won't work if I don't get him the time. But listen Amy. If you love the Doctor, this is vital." She looked straight into the red head's brown eyes. "Don't tell him you met me. Not now, not ever. Not under any circumstances. Do you understand?" Amy opened her mouth to protest but Rose quickly shook her. "Do you understand!?" Amy nodded, her eyes hard and sad. "Good." Then Rose's eyes glowed bright gold, brighter then ever before. "Goodbye Amelia Pond."

Rose pushed Amy into the console room. The doors slid shut as Amy rushed back towards them. Through the crack of them, just as they slid closed, she saw the glowing gold woman jump into the vertical corridor. The anti-gravs were still off. Amy screamed out and slammed her fist against the door.

"Amy!" Rory hollered as he raced over. His wife continued to scream, slamming her fist against the closed doors over and over again. Rose couldn't be dead. She couldn't be gone. She hadn't even gotten to see the Doctor.

Rory reached his wife just as the doors slid back open. The Ood. Amy creamed and jumped back. Rory grabbed her hand and pulled her across the console room to the other side. The Ood calmly followed them across.

Rory held his wife, shielding her from the alien when a burst of bright light materialised in the console room. The Ponds quickly grabbed hold of the coral struts that circled the old room. Bright rings encircled a giant orb and wind whipped past the companions. A sound, very similar to the TARDIS' usual grinding noise filled the air and suddenly everything was still.

The light faded to its greenish dead glow from before.

Amy swung out from behind her coral strut, she smiled brightly at the Doctor, standing before her by a different time rotor. The woman, the TARDIS, was sitting on the ground, having fallen in the landing. "Doctor." They raced towards each other and hugged as the console he'd used continued to spark randomly. Amy held him tightly, as if she were trying to make up for the loss that was Rose Tyler's absence. Little did she know, every time the Doctor hugged her, he was doing the same.

"Oh…" The TARDIS groaned from the floor. The Doctor turned and quickly helped her to stand up. "Not good. Not good at all." She looked to Amy and Rory. "How do you walk around in these things?"

"We're not quite there yet." The Doctor said. "Just hold on." He helped her to sit down on the edge of the time rotor they'd built together. Then the Doctor twirled around to his companions. He clapped his hands together and smiled gleefully. "Amy, this is, well, she's my TARDIS. Except she's a woman. She's a woman, and she's my TARDIS."

"Yes Doctor." Amy nodded. "We know."

He didn't seem to hear her. "And she's a woman. She's a woman and she's the TARDIS. Wait, how'd you know?"

Amy quickly changed the subject. "Did you wish _really_ hard?"

The Doctor's mouth dropped and he frowned. "Shut up. Not like that."

"Hello." The TARDIS greeted as she stood up. "I'm… Sexy."

The Doctor dragged a hand down his face as Amy smirked. "Oh. Still shut up." His mind switched tracks. "But how'd you know?"

"The environment has been breached." House stated calmly from all around them. "Nephew, kill them all."

Rory's eyes widened as he remembered the green eyed Ood. "Where's Nephew?"

Amy gestured to the Doctor. "He was standing right where you materialised."

"Ah. Well, he must have been redistributed." The Time Lord responded, not all too caring. At Rory and Amy's confused looks he expanded. "You're breathing him." Amy quickly covered her nose. Seriously? She thought. Meanwhile, the Doctor sighed despondently. "Another Ood I failed to save."

"Doctor." House greeted in a somewhat pleasant tone. "I did not expect you."

The Doctor grinned and raised his arms. "Well, that's me all over, isn't it? Lovely old unexpected me." He walked about the old console. Oh this thing brought back memories didn't it? He almost dared to think her name, among so many others.

"The big question is, now you're here, how to dispose of you? I suppose I could have fun with it. But really, I've found a different sort of amusement instead." The TARDIS looked up with a look of dread on her face. _Rose_. "Why shouldn't I just kill you now? Quick, and easy."

The TARDIS fell forward; she could feel the feeble human organs begin to fail her. Rory ran forward and moved quickly into nurse mode.

"Because then I won't be able to help you." The Doctor implored. "Listen to your engines. Just listen to them. You don't have the thrust and you know it. Right now I'm your only hope for getting out of your little bubble through the rift, and into my universe. And mine's the one with the food in." The Doctor put his hands on the console. He looked up. "You just have to promise not to kill us. That's all, just promise."

Amy's eyes grew furious. "You can't be serious." This monster was the reason his companion was dead. Rose died for him to stop this thing. Amy opened her mouth, but Rose's words stopped her. _Not under any circumstances_.

"I'm very serious." The Doctor gave Amy a hard look. "I'm sure it's an entity of its word."

"Doctor," Rory interrupted from the floor. His hand was over the TARDIS forehead, the other clutching the woman's hand, "she's burning up. She's asking for water."

The Doctor ran over and knelt beside her. "Hey. Hang in there, old girl. Not long now. It'll be over soon."

The TARDIS smiled briefly. "I always liked it when you call me old girl."

House spoke from around them again. "You want me to give my word? Easy. I promise."

The Doctor nodded. "Fine. Okay. I trust you. Just delete, oh er, thirty percent of the TARDIS rooms, you'll free up thrust enough to make it through. Activate subroutine Sigma nine."

"Yes. I can delete rooms." The House confirmed. "And I can also rid myself of vermin if I delete this room first. Thank you, Doctor. Very helpful. Goodbye, Time Lord. Goodbye, little humans. Goodbye, Idris."

A bright white light shone through the console room. The Doctor covered his eyes and looked away as it consumed the room. The TARDIS' shell shook violently as the blue box slipped through the rift back into the universe.

The grinding noise of the materialization sounded and just like that, The Doctor, Rory, Amy and the TARDIS were in the main control them.

The Doctor lowered his arms and walked around the console. "Yes. I mean, you could do that, but it just won't work. Hardwired fail safe. Living things from rooms that are deleted are automatically deposited in the main control room. But thanks for the lift."

"We are in your universe now, Doctor." House informed him. "Why should it matter to me in which room you die? I can kill you just as easily here as anywhere. Fear me. I've killed hundreds of Time Lords."

The Doctor's green eyes darkened. "Fear me. I've killed all of them." The look slipped and he pulled on an easy going lack of concern façade. "Oh but you're right. You've completely won. Oh, you can kill us in oodles of really inventive ways, but before you do kill us allow me and friends Amy and Rory to congratulate you on being an absolutely worthy opponent."

He nodded at Amy who quickly began clapping her hands unenthusiastically. "Congratulations."

"Yep," The Doctor continued, "you've defeated us. Me and my lovely friends here, and last but definitely not least, the TARDIS Matrix herself, a living consciousness you ripped out of this very control room and locked up into a human body. And look at her."

"Doctor," Rory whispered, "she's stopped breathing."

House's deep voice sounded throughout the TARDIS shell. "Enough. That is enough."

The Doctor glared menacingly. "No. It's never enough. You forced the TARDIS into a body so she'd burn out safely a very long way away from this control room. A flesh body can't hold the TARDIS Matrix and live. Look at her body, House."

"And you think I should mourn her?" He sounded bored.

The Doctor's glare darkened at the alien's tone. "No. I think you should be very, very careful about what you let back into this control room. You took her from her home. But now she's back in the box again, and she's free."

Golden streams of light and dust escaped from the TARDIS' mouth. They shot about the control room, slipping through the cracks. The TARDIS' soul slowly began to take back its home, one glowing beam at a time. Soon enough, the room was filled with glowing streams flying from one place to another.

"No." House protested, to no avail. "Doctor, stop this. Argh! Stop this now." The TARDIS' soul increased its attack. Its beautiful fingers seeping back into the time rotor and brightening the room.

"Oh, look at my girl." The Doctor's voice was adoring, proud like a father at his little girl's first football match. "Look at her go. Bigger on the inside. You see, House? That's your problem. Size of a planet, but inside you are just so _small_."

"Make it stop." House pleaded.

The Doctor spun around, and turned his back on House's voice. "Finish him off, girl."

"Ow. Don't do this! Argh!"

Very quickly, the last golden rays disappeared into the TARDIS. The room no longer glowed the unnatural green colour. It was bright and golden. The TARDIS shone like a star in the night.

"Doctor, are you there?" The Doctor spun around at the sound of the TARDIS' voice. There she stood by the stairs. The TARDIS' human body glowing golden like an angel. "It's so very dark in here."

The Doctor stepped up to her, his eyes wide "I'm here." He studied the woman's face. He didn't want to forget this, not a single moment of it.

"I've been looking for a word." The TARDIS told him. "A big, complicated word, but so sad. I've found it now."

"What word?"

She smiled. "Alive. I'm alive."

"Alive isn't sad."

"It's sad when it's over. I'll always be here, but this is when we talked," her smile grew and if her entire being hadn't already been lighting the room, the Doctor knew that that would have, "and now even that has come to an end. There's something I didn't get to say to you."

"Goodbye?" He guessed with teary eyes. He'd always been awful at goodbyes.

"No." She shook her head, oh her silly old Time Lord. "I just wanted to say hello. Hello, Doctor. It's so very, very nice to meet you."

"Please." He pleaded. "I don't want you to. Please."

The TARDIS smiled at him. "You won't be alone." She lifted her head up and raised her arms as the gold glow slowly dissolved into smalls pieces of dust and sparkles of light. The familiar grinding noise filled the room and soon enough, she was gone.

The Doctor stood there, staring at the spot she once occupied. He couldn't bring himself to look away. Amy held her husbands hand tightly. She wanted to go to him, but she wasn't sure if that was what _he_ wanted. The Doctor. The Lonely God.

Slowly. Very slowly. He turned to his companions.

Rory watched the Doctor. He waited as long as he could, but he had to ask. "What about R –?"

"Rory!" Amy quickly smacked Rory's arm. He turned to his wife, face questioning.

The Doctor glared at them. "_Who_?" Amy refused to believe that the Doctor's voice sounded that watery. The Doctor could get emotional, but he was never, _emotional_.

"No one." Amy quickly responded before her husband could say anything.

The Doctor glanced between his two companions. He certainly wasn't in the mood for this. "Amelia." He said warningly.

Amy sighed. "Look, she told me not to say, okay?"

The Doctor frowned. The TARDIS had mentioned a 'her'. Multiple times she'd mentioned another person. "Who? Why?"

"Because I didn't think I'd survive."

The Doctor went rigid. Ever single muscle in his entire body froze. He was paralysed. His eyes went to Amy and Rory, both of which were looking past him, smiling. The Doctor's hearts constricted, painfully. Dare he even believe?

He turned around.

There, standing at the top of the staircase was the most beautiful vision he'd ever seen. Rose Tyler. Her hair was longer, no longer peroxide blonde. It was a more natural looking honey colour. Her eyes were more golden then green, and she wore significantly less makeup. But it was her. Her in her TARDIS blue leather jacket. Her in her Torchwood regulated boots. Rose Marion Tyler.

She walked down the stairs and stopped at the bottom. She smiled, that special tongue in tooth smile. And he was gone.

The Doctor raced across the room and swept her up into a hug. She laughed and it sounded like angels. He swung her back and forth, like he had after Krop Tor. He set her down and smiled at her. Smiled like he felt he'd never smiled before. Belatedly he realised he'd never smiled like that, not in that body, not to Rose.

Rose left her arms hanging around his neck and she smiled up at him. He was a bit shorter, but she didn't mind. Not at all. "My Doctor."

The sound of her voice. The Doctor's eyes filled with tears. "Oh, my Rose. I missed you so much."

Rose smile was blinding. "Good." She said.

"Yeah?"

"Yes."

The Doctor wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her back to him. He held her there for a long time, relishing the feel of her, the smell. She still fit. She always did. Every body of his seemed to respond to her in the exact same way. They were made for her. He was made for her.

Someone cleared their throat. Rose and the Doctor reluctantly pulled apart. The second they did, the Doctor picked up Rose's hand. He couldn't let her go. He'd never let her go again. The Doctor knew at the back of his mind, something was wrong. She would never have left her Doctor, her family. He knew that the world, somewhere, some when, was ending. But for those blissful few seconds, he was happy.

"So," Rory said, "you're alive then."

"Yup!" Rose winked. "Can't get rid of me." Her tongue poked out of her smile and it took all the Doctor's self restraint not to hug her again.

"Don't I know it…." The Doctor grumbled jokingly.

Rose poked him in the chest. "Oi! Don't start with me Chinny. Seriously, between that thing and that nose, you might as well be livin' on Easter Island." The Doctor's mouth dropped open.

"Yeah," Amy raised a hand and pointed at her, cutting off any retort the Doctor had thought up, "but I saw you jump down a vertical hallway. While the anti-gravs were off."

The Doctor's eyes widened. He turned to his companion. "Rose!" He stopped suddenly and smiled. "Rose Tyler." It sounded good coming from that mouth. "Rose Marion Tyler." The words tasted wonderful on his tongue. Rose raised an eyebrow, amused. His mind snapped back to the conversation at hand. He gasped. "Rose! Jeopardy friendly is one thing. But _really_."

Rose smiled at him. It wasn't necessarily a happy smile though; her eyes were sad and far away. The Doctor decided very quickly that he did not, in fact, like that smile. "Oh Doctor. We've got a lot to discuss." The two stared into each other's eyes for a few minutes.

Amy watched them completely intrigued. Rose had said she was a companion. Amy could see that, they knew each other. The Doctor though, that smile one his face and the look in his eyes. Not even ten minutes ago if someone had asked Amy if she'd seen the Doctor at his best, she'd have said yes. Now she wasn't so sure. Not even River Song, who Amy was quite certain was the Doctor's wife, made the Doctor smile like that. If anything, the Doctor avoided River. He always seemed to grumble when she was around. It'd been getting better, she had clearly been growing on him. But this. This _relationship_ standing before her. The Doctor refused to let the woman's hand go. And Rose seemed to be on the same page.

This changed everything.

Rory coughed. "Right, well." Rose and the Doctor glanced back at them. They looked surprised, as if they hadn't realised Amy and Rory were still there. "I'm going to go eat some dinner while you two… _talk_." Rory pulled Amy's hand and the woman reluctantly followed her husband of the steps and out of the console room.

The Doctor and Rose looked back at each other. Rose blushed and looked down.

"Right," he said, though it was clear he didn't really know where to start, "So…"

"You changed." Rose commented. It wasn't a sad voice, nor was it happy. She seemed… content.

The Doctor's eyes widened. "Oh. Yes. Well." He raised his arms and smiled in a manner that stole Rose's breath away. All charm and glowing arrogance, something Rose didn't think she'd ever seen from him before. "What do ya think?"

Rose crossed her arm and pursed her lips. She looked him up and down. He was wearing a light brown striped dress shirt with a tweed jacket and elbow patches. His trousers were a bit short and he was wearing laced up brown boots. Her eyes went back to his face. Green eyes.

"Blimey," she laughed, "your eyes are just goin' through all the colours of the rainbow, aren't they?"

The Doctor frowned and his brows developed a slight line between them. "That's it. Brand new regeneration and that's all you've got?" He straightened his bowtie.

"Yeah, well, I'm tryin' real hard not to be too put off."

"Put off?" The Doctor had moved right past mildly insulted to full blown displeasure. Rose Tyler not liking his regeneration, it sounded like some sick joke.

Rose poked his bowtie. "After all our arguments about bowties, Doctor. You finally put one on again, and I'm not here to see it!" She smacked his arm lightly.

The Doctor caught her hand and held it against his hearts. "You're here now." She smiled up at him. "Why are you here, Rose? What's happening?"

She shook her head. "Nothin'. No really, Doctor. Nothing is going on."

"But…"

"You're dead. In the other world." The Doctor didn't event think, he just moved. He grabbed hold of Rose and crushed her against his chest. She returned the hug, allowing him to comfort her.

"How?"

"Old age."

He pulled back and looked down at the woman in his arms. Young as ever. The Doctor couldn't have died of old age. She hadn't aged a day herself. _She hadn't aged_. "No." Was it possible? Could he ever really be that lucky? Rose didn't say anything, she just watched him as he processed the information. He fought a smile from taking over his face. "But that's…" The Doctor though, the one who grew old with her in the alternate universe. "I'm so sorry."

"Why?" She wasn't angry, she wasn't even sad. Rose Tyler, always so compassionate.

"You had to watch him die Rose. _You'll_ probably never die. It's my fault."

Rose stepped out of his reach. Her eyes hardened and she crossed her arms. "Really? Because I don't remember you holdin' me down as you forced the Vortex into me." He opened his mouth but she raised a hand and continued on. "You know what I do remember? I remember an amazing man givin' me a chance to live a _fantastically_ normal life. And I remember choosin' him instead. I remember bein' asked to travel with a mad alien and sayin' no. I remember changin' my own mind." She sighed, the fight leaving her and stepped forward to stroke his cheek. The Doctor closed his eyes and leaned into the touch. "It took me a long time to convince you this wasn't your fault in the other universe. I'm willin' to do that again, Doctor.

"I don't blame you." She whispered, so close that her breath ghosted across his face. "I don't blame you 'cause I don't, nor have I ever, seen this as a bad thing."

The Doctor smiled and cupped her hand against his cheek. "My Rose."

She frowned. "Something's wrong." The Doctor's hand tightened, but she didn't seem to notice. Rose closed her eyes and focused on the swirling energy inside her. The BAD WOLF. A soft humming – no, a singing – flowed through the golden light in her mind. It was faint, as if weak and it seemed to be breaking in an out, like a CD with scratches on it. "The TARDIS' jibbert cathacode troisieme timepiece needs to be looked at; she had a bit of a close call there towards the end."

The Doctor blinked. "I'm sorry?"

Rose rolled her eyes and headed down the steps that led to the underside of the control room. "Honestly Doctor. Do you really think you'd live with me for 60 years and not teach me to control the Time Vortex?"

"Wait. What? Rose!" The Doctor hurried down the steps after her.

* * *

Amy and Rory could hear the laughter down the hall from the control room. Amy gave her husband a quick look and then headed into the brightly lit area. It was empty.

"No," Rose was saying as sternly as she could manage, "don't you dare try to fuse those two together."

The Ponds skipped down the steps to find Rose and the Doctor sitting on separate swings across from each other. They both had their sonic screwdrivers out and were fusing wires together. The Doctor was smiling broadly at her, holding two wires close together. Rose shook her head and laughed.

Rory smiled. "How's it going under here?"

The Doctor looked over at the Ponds. Amy had never seen him so carefree. Nothing, not a single speck of sadness seemed to lurk in his eyes. "I'm just putting up a firewall around the Matrix."

"And 'm fixin' the jibbert cathacode troisieme timepiece." Rose informed with a bright, toothy smile. "If things get a bit slow, don't mind it."

Rory nodded, though he had no clue what she was talking about. "Right. Will do." Amy smiled at her husband and looked back to the Doctor from her perch on the stairs. She leaned her head against the railing. "Are you going to make her talk again?"

At that, the Doctor smiled at Rose. "No need. I've got Rose now."

Rory frowned. "I don't understand."

Rose winked. "The TARDIS and I've got a… special connection." She noticed the slight frown to his features and quickly recognized it as something other than confusion. She slowly dropped her smile. "You okay?"

Rory shook his head. "No. I watched her die. I shouldn't let it get to me, but it still does. I'm a nurse."

The wires in the Doctor's hands sparked and he quickly shoved his fingers in his mouth. He nodded at Rory's words and wiped his fingers on his jacket. Rose wrinkled her nose at him. "Letting it get to you. You know what that's called? Being alive. Best thing there is. Being alive right now, that's all that counts. Nearly finished." He turned back to the wires. Rose lifted her sonic quickly and did it for him from across the small space between them. No sparks erupted. She smiled cheekily at him as he scowled. "Two more minutes," he told the Ponds, still eyeing Rose. Then he turned to the couple, "then we're off. The Eye of Orion's restful, if you like restful. I can never really get the hang of restful. What do you think, dear? Where shall we take the kids this time?" The Doctor stroked a piece of the TARDIS.

Rose's eyes glowed gold. "Mmm… Eye of Orion might be another day Doctor. She's back home; she wants to get right back into the swing of things." Her eyes widened and she laughed softly, "Oh this is going to be a good one." The Doctor's eyes sparkled as he leaned toward his companion, completely enraptured.

Amy smiled too. She couldn't help it. "Look at you two." She gestured to the Doctor and the TARDIS. "It's always you and her, isn't it, long after the rest of us have gone. A boy and his box, off to see the universe."

The Doctor absent-mindedly played with the wires as he smiled at Rose. He didn't seem to realise that Amy was talking only about the Doctor and not Rose. "Rose and the Doctor in the TARDIS. The way it should be. You say it as if it's a bad thing." He glanced at the ginger. "But honestly, it's the best thing there is." Amy tried to keep the smile on her face. She still didn't know who Rose was, but the Doctor seemed so happy to have her around again. Amy briefly wondered if she'd ever get Rose's full story.

The woman in question spoke up again. "House deleted all the bedrooms. I can make you two a new one." Her eyes glowed for a second as Rory and Amy glanced at each other. "Don't worry. It's covered."

The Ponds smiled and laughed lightly if not a little warily. They said their goodbyes and headed back up to the main hallway. Rose fiddled with the wires on her end for a second. She glanced up at the Doctor then went back to work. She did it three more times before the Doctor finally said something.

"Rose." She looked up, eyes wide. "What's wrong?"

Rose bit her lip. "Is probably nothin'…just… Doctor? What's wrong with Amy?" The Doctor's eyes saddened instantly. Something dark grew there; it was the first time Rose had seen anything dark in him since she'd come home. "I don't want to start nothin', honest Doctor. Is just, something is… off. Do you know what it is?"

He slowly shook his head. "No." He looked up at her. "But I'm working on it."

Rose nodded. The two went back to their wires. Rose could hear the emptiness in the control room. The lack of laughter was a weight on her chest she'd never really felt with the Doctor before.

"I'll tell you what though," Rose said with her tongue in cheek smile, The Doctor looked up and his entire demeanour softened at the sight of it, "bunk beds? Really Doctor?"

"Oi!" He cried. "I'll have you know, Rose Tyler, bunk beds are very cool."

* * *

I really do hope you've all enjoyed reading this. I'm not quite sure if I'll continue it just yet. I'm sort of 50/50. So! If you want me to continue, let me know. Message me, review it. I really don't mind. If not a lot of people seem to mind, then I think I'll just leave it as it. Otherwise, it's up for debate.

For anyone who might be wondering, a "jibbert cathacode troisieme timepiece" is and object that "...records the passage of time aboard a TARDIS. When a TARDIS is near death the flow of time between the interior and exterior breaks down. The effect of this is similar to Temporal Orbit. In such cases several minutes will pass inside a TARDIS for every second that passes outside." I didn't make this up, it's canon from classic who. Google the title and I'm sure you'll find everything about it.

Anyways! Thanks for reading and let me know if you want more! :)


	3. True Love (Part One): Fact or Fiction?

Rose sat in the dinning room with a steaming cup of tea in her hands. Sitting across the elaborate breakfast spread from her sat the Doctor, eating jam from the jar with a spoon. He'd originally gone for some fish sticks and custard, but Rose had scolded him instantly. It was breakfast for heaven's sake, he could at least try and be healthy. She didn't think jam constituted as healthy much more than fish sticks, but it was still a step up. At least it was in the breakfast menu.

"Glad to see some things don't change then." Rose titled her head to the side; he _was_ using a spoon. "Well, don't change too much." And the TARDIS wouldn't get angry at him for messy hands anymore. There's always a plus.

The Doctor pointed his spoon at the blonde and swallowed the jam in his mouth in one big gulp. "You know, you should have seen me when I first regenerated. Couldn't figure out what I wanted to eat." He leaned across the table in a conspiratory manner and Rose did the same. "I even had a craving for an apple."

Rose's brows shot up. "A craving? That's new."

"I know!" Finally someone else understood him. The Doctor smiled goofily at Rose, she always understood him.

Rose smirked. "It's also very… human."

The Doctor's mouth dropped open. "Oi! There is no need for such cheek, Ms. Tyler."

Rose smiled her special smile back at him whilst Rory and Amy entered the dinning hall. The couple's eyes widened at the incredible spread of food before them. "Mornin'!" Rose chirped happily. They waved amiably, still a little surprised by the unexpected amount of food. They grabbed a plate each and began loading up.

Rose took a sip of her tea as Rory sat down beside her. A warm feeling spread inside her, as if it her were only just hitting her she was back. Rose Tyler and the Doctor, in the TARDIS. She was finally home again. She glanced across the table to the man as he began to pull apart some futuristic house appliance. Rose mentally reminded herself to stop by the 52 Century to buy a replacement.

"So, Doctor," Rory began as he spread maple syrup over his pancakes, "what's the occasion?" His eyes flickered to Rose but he didn't say anything else. Amy and Rory had talked about it last night. They weren't going to question Rose and the Doctor, which meant Amy was going to wait to be alone with the Doctor before she interrogates him. The red head liked Rose, but it was disconcerting that the Doctor hadn't mentioned her. Rory didn't mind so much. Rose had saved their life with House, and she clearly cared for the Doctor deeply. If she had secrets, then she had secrets. The Doctor did too. Though he honestly couldn't claim that he wasn't the least bit curious about her.

"Yeah," Amy nodded in agreement beside the Doctor, across from Rory, "you never do breakfast." The Doctor frowned, though she wasn't sure if it was at her comment, or the shinny object he was actively destroying.

Rose laughed. "Of course he didn't cook. The man could burn toast if ya let him. Nah, I did this." The Doctor rolled his eyes at Rose but didn't comment.

Amelia almost dropped her fork. "What – seriously? How early did you wake up?" Her eyes flickered across the bacon, sausage, eggs, waffles, freshly squeezed juices and more. Something sparked from inside the Doctor's deconstructed appliance and Amy quickly shifted her chair a little bit away.

Rose shrugged. "I don't need as much sleep as you." It looked like she might say more, but she simply took another sip of tea. Rory and Amy frowned but didn't comment. They sat quietly for a bit, while Amy and Rory ate their breakfast. Rose picked at the fruits on her plate with her fork. "So… Did you sleep well?" The Ponds nodded with their mouths full. Rose's smile beamed back at them. "Good! The TARDIS has some amazing plans."

"Yeah," Amy said slowly, "you mentioned that before. How do you know that? Can you talk to her?" Amy looked to the Doctor when she asked this. As far as the Doctor had always said, no one could talk to the TARDIS, ever. Not even the Doctor, but last night the Doctor had implied that Rose could. The Doctor was oddly quiet, he hadn't said a word. He was still playing with his whatever-the-hell-that-thing-was, and didn't seem to really care about their conversation. Rose held back a smile, bit too domestic for him.

The blonde shrugged. "Not in so many words." She set her fork down and pursed her lips as she decided how to explain her connection to the TARDIS. "I can sor' of get impressions from her, yeah? Like when something's broken or she's excited 'bout somethin'. To be honest I'm not really sure what else. The TARDIS and I have always been connected, but not like this."

"Yes," the Doctor agreed, looking up from his jam for the first time since the Ponds had entered the room, "which is why you aren't going to go playing with it until I've figured it all out. Right?"

Rose winked. "Scouts honour."

"Yeah, right, sorry. But how'd that happen in the first place?" Rory shook his hand when the Doctor opened his mouth. "Yeah, I know, you need to run some tests. But you mentioned a connection," he turned to Rose, "one you had before. What happened to cause that? What was it?"

Rose smiled, almost proudly it seemed. She could definitely see why the Doctor took Rory. He was brilliant. Rose didn't open her mouth, her eyes glowed gold for a second, but she didn't move to respond.

The Doctor flew back away from the table and landed roughly on his back. "Doctor!" The three companions jumped up.

Rose's smile widened. "And that'll be the adventure." She glanced to Amy and Rory. "You two best get dressed; we'll probably be off soon." Amy finished helping the Doctor back to his feet, who was busy patting the pockets of her jacket and trousers. He seemed fine, and Rose was already racing around the table to his side. Rory walked around the table and took his wife's hand.

"Are you sure?" He asked as he mentally checked over the Doctor's body, assessing for any physical injuries or possible head trauma.

The Doctor looked up at him. "What are you two doing? You heard Rose, we've got an adventure! As soon as I've found my psychic paper."

The Ponds quickly left to their room as Rose reached into the Doctor's breast pocket and pulled out the psychic paper. "Silly Time Lord."

"Oi."

* * *

"Right!" The Doctor exclaimed as he whirled around the console, a ball of endless energy. "So, little message, psychic paper." The Doctor tossed the paper to Amy who caught it and read it.

"Who's Max?" She asked and tossed the paper to Rory. He read it and frowned.

The Doctor paused and smiled. "Oh Maximus, lovely fellow, curator of a museum in the 59 Century."

Amy groaned. "Seriously? Another museum." She crossed her arms and cocked her hip. "We don't care about your stupid score, Doctor."

The Doctor frowned and Rose cut him off before he could begin whining. "We're not goin' for that. When I was travelin' with the Doctor, we helped Max out after an artefact from the museum had been taken. You see, by the 59 Century humans had already figured out time travel. Max's museum is one of the best in his galaxy. He's got exhibits from aborted timelines that never were, if Hitler had taken over? Yeah, he's got an entire wing dedicated to it."

Rory tossed the psychic paper back to the Doctor who quickly pocketed it. "Alright, awesome museum. But it is just a museum, who cares if a little item goes missing? Call the police. I mean, it's not really our area, is it?"

"Usually it isn't," the Doctor agreed, "but the Nova Peninsula Museum doesn't have just items from across time, some of these items, like the one that was stolen, are said to be _magical_." The Doctor typed in the coordinates to the museum and began punching buttons and pulling levers.

Amy walked up and leaned her hands on the console. "But magic doesn't exist."

Rose shook her head. "Just because it looks like science to us, doesn't meant it isn't magic to some primitive life form." She walked around the console to stand by the other woman.

"Yes, but you said they discovered time travel, they can't be primitive."

"And, technically speakin' they aren't," Rose began to agree, "but if you were to give someone from say, Medieval Times, a juke box. Well they'd think it was magic. They have time travel Amy, which means they could pick up objects so far in their future, so technologically advanced, that suddenly it looks like magic is possible, yeah?"

Amy nodded. The TARDIS shook and the two women quickly grabbed the console as the Doctor whooped. The TARDIS continued to shake and Rose laughed as he fell to the ground, loosing his footing. Oh he was such a klutz this time round, she thought. The TARDIS landed relatively safely and Rory picked himself up from where he'd fallen to the ground. Rose patted him on the back and smiled sympathetically.

The Doctor popped back up and smiled excitedly. "Right, so, are we ready to solve another mystery, gang?"

Rose smiled cheekily and raced up to him, taking his hand. "Right behind ya Fred." Rose glanced behind her to the Ponds as the Doctor dragged her out the door and gestured for them to follow. "Come one Shaggy, Velma." Amy rolled her eyes and raced out of the TARDIS after them. Rory took a bit longer, grumbling something that sounded distinctly like, "why am _I_ Shaggy?"

The Nova Peninsula Museum was white and clean, as was the nature of architecture in the 59 Century. The walls were tall on either side of the hall that they had materialised in, the tops curving into the ceiling like an archway. There were openings along the corridor with labels in plain black typing that led to other exhibits. Amy glanced around the TARDIS exterior, but they seemed to have landed beside the only door, one that was clearly labelled management.

The door flew open and a small curly haired man raced threw. His wide eyes laded on the Doctor, "Doctor!" he exclaimed as he threw his arms into the air. The Time Lord spun around, hand still firmly grasped in Rose's. The curly haired fellow's mouth dropped open. "Rose!" He ran toward the two and threw his arms around them awkwardly.

Amy watched them, unable to keep the amused look off her face. However, Rose and the Doctor seemed nonplussed. Clearly this was regular action for the spindly fellow. "See Doctor!" The man cried as he pulled back and smiled happily at the two. "I told you she wasn't lost. Love reunited at long last!" The man laughed. Rose blushed and looked away. The Doctor simply rubbed the back of his neck and cleared his throat.

"Right, well… I … hmmm… Maximus! You sent me a message yes?"

The man's eyes widened further and Amy wondered if they would simply continue to do so until they popped out. "Yes… yes, this way then." He glanced over at the Ponds. "Right, sorry, I'm Maximus. Are you further associates of the Doctor?"

Amy shook the man's hand and smiled pleasantly. "You could say that, yeah. I'm Amy Pond, his is my husband, Rory." Rory stepped forward and greeted the frazzled looking curator. He was wearing a striped shirt like the Doctor's, and a blue vest and brown corduroy slacks. All of which did not match in the slightest and made for a look of an even more confused man then his personality gave off.

"Pleased to meet you. Now, the exhibit is this way. _Please_ stay together." He turned down the long hall and began a brisk pace.

"Right, down to business." The Doctor said, still clearly flustered over Max's earlier comments of him and Rose. "Max, what exactly was taken? I thought I improved your defences last time I was here?"

Max glanced over at the Doctor worriedly. "This exhibit was an old one. It'd been on a tour around the galaxy. It didn't have the updated security yet. They were supposed to install a good one on the weekend, but I thought it'd be fine. Really, it toured the galaxy and no one had tried anything." Rose sighed, oh Max. "As for the object, I'm afraid it was Aphrodite's Apple."

The Doctor stopped walking and frowned at Max. The group paused in the long hallway, having gone so far that the TARDIS could no longer be seen around the curve of the wall. "I'm sorry, _The_ Aphrodite's Apple? As in the one given to her by Paris? The deal that eventually started the Trojan War?" Max winced.

"Wait a second here," Rory waved his hands to calm the Doctor down, "I know this story, this is a myth. The goddess of Discord, Eris, plays a trick on Athena, Aphrodite and Hera and says the keeper of the apple is the most beautiful woman in the world."

The Doctor nodded and began pacing. Amy's eyes widened, pacing already? That wasn't good. "Yes, that's right. And then Paris of Troy is given the task of deciding who gets the apple. Aphrodite grants Paris true love with the most beautiful woman, Helen of Sparta, if he'll give the apple to her. He does, and then Paris gets the girl, after he steals her from her husband, Menelaus." The Doctor stopped and turned to his companions. "But it wasn't the deal that started the war, it was the apple. Because of the desire, it destroyed an entire civilization. Ten years later, Troy fell."

Max nodded. "Those are the ancient stories of it, yes. That's the apples creation story, but it's been used since then." He turned and continued walking down the hall.

The others followed. Entrances to other exhibits past by with titles of 'Atlantis', 'Walt Disney's Return', 'The End of Earth', 'Who is the Face of Boe?'. Rose passed by one of the exhibits then paused and backed up. Her eyes widened. "No way." She breathed out. She glanced down the hall to the others. Rose shook her head, she couldn't resist. She slipped into the room.

Rory turned back just as Rose slipped into the room. All he slaw was a flash of pink and yellow, and she was gone. He glanced ahead at the Doctor talking quickly with Amy and Max. Rory turned back toward where Rose disappeared.

* * *

"So the apple's been used again since the fall of Troy?" Amy asked confused. She wasn't all too surprised that a mythic item was real, she was married to the Last Centurion after all. Or he was, in an alternate timeline…thing.

"Yes, and every time it has, it's destroyed the civilization it's been in." Max informed her.

"But how does it work?"

They finally came across an exhibit labelled 'Aphrodite's Apple' which they quickly entered. The room was an octagon with tapestries and cases of random historical pieces lining each wall. In the centre of the room there was a pedestal and a partially broken glass case. A bright light shone from the ceiling down onto the crime scene. The Doctor paused and looked around. He groaned.

"Rory and Rose wandered off." He turned back to the pedestal. "She's always doin' that."

Amy glanced around worriedly. "Shouldn't we go find them?"

The Doctor shrugged and stepped toward the pedestal to examine it. "Nah, Rose is a pro at wandering off. Wandered all the way to another universe once… or twice." Amy frowned but didn't comment, he was clearly just rambling to himself. She did make a mental note of it though so she could interrogate him later.

Max ambled over with a clipboard and papers for the Doctor. The Doctor flipped threw them then threw the clipboard over his head carelessly. Max didn't seem surprised at all.

"Right," the Doctor clapped his hands and rubbed them together, "I'm sort of curious. Amy had a good question there before. How does the apple work?" He turned to Max.

The man jumped slightly and shifted nervously. "Yes, well. The apple gives the holder their true love."

Amy frowned. "What's so dangerous about that?"

"True love doesn't exist." Max replied. The Doctor and Amy frowned at him, neither agreed. "The holders mind becomes clouded but mostly intact, but everyone he comes in contact with change. People become deranged, usually in search of their love, or their greatest desire. The apple was all about desire. Hera, Aphrodite and Athena desired to be the most loved, the most beautiful, so the apple gives that desire to everyone else. Aphrodite's Apple has toppled 433 civilizations to date. If we don't find it, then it might topple another."

Amy nodded. "Right, so we're looking for a deranged mad man who wants to be loved." She looked to the Doctor and smirked. "Good thing you have an alibi."

The Doctor glared at her then turned to the curator. "Have there been any noticeable effects yet?"

Max nodded furiously. "Yes. The madness is already spreading. The head of the museum captured some paradox woman last week because he thought she'd be an interesting exhibit."

"People aren't exhibits."

"My sentiments exactly."

Amy bit her lip and walked around the pedestal. They needed to figure this thing out, now. "But how can it control all those people? It's just an apple."

"How can the common cold make so many people sick in a span of a few months Amy? It's an infection." The Doctor pulled out his sonic screwdriver and took a reading of the pedestal. He frowned and hit the side of the sonic and then tried again.

"What's wrong?" Amy asked as she stepped up next to him.

"The sonic. It's picking up something else…" The Doctor raised his arms and pointed the sonic around the room, activating it as he did. The screwdriver warbled for a moment before the Doctor abruptly turned it off. He raced around the pedestal to the edge of the shattered glass. He bent down and picked a small black object up.

Amy followed him and looked over his shoulder. It was sort of moon shaped, black with ridges along it. It was more pointed at one end, like a tooth. "What is it?"

The Doctor turned to Amy with a frown on his face. "A Chelonian claw." He turned it over in his hand a few times, his frowned deepened. He scanned the claw as he talked. "I don't understand though. Why would the Chelonians want the apple? How could that… Oh… It's the late 59 Century!" He exclaimed.

Amy scowled. "Yeah, so? What's the date got to do with anything?"

"Don't you see? The Chelonian's empire was falling during the 60th Century." Amy rolled her eyes; of course she didn't see that. Stupid Time Lord. "If they want to take back their Empire, they'll need the apple."

Max frowned and stepped towards the two. "Would the apple actually help that?"

The Doctor thought for a second and then shrugged. "Probably not, but the Chelonian's aren't really known for their brains. Big, turtle like things, not too smart. They'll have landed near by, or be in orbit around the planet." The Doctor turned and raced from the room. "Back to the TARDIS!" He called over his shoulder.

* * *

Rory paused at the entrance to the exhibit. 'Bad Wolf: The Time Goddess'. He frowned at the title and entered into the room. It was a hexagon room, with hallways leading to more rooms extending from the five other walls. The exhibit was massive. The main room was set up in aisles with display cases showing various items and pieces of information. The far back wall had what appeared to be a replica of a sign: BAD WOLF CORPORATION. Rose stood under it, looking up at the words.

Rory entered the room and looked down at one of the display cases. There was a picture of an aerial view of what was labelled as 'London: 21 Century'. It seemed to be a park, with the words BAD WOLF across the tarmac.

"Rose?" The woman jumped and turned around. She saw Rory and her eyes softened. "What is this?" Why would she leave the group to see this? It was just a few words connected to a fairy tale.

"It's an exhibit." Rose said as she glanced over her shoulder at the words. "It's about Bad Wolf, have you ever heard of her?"

Something about her tone made it clear she wasn't talking about the fairy tales. Rory frowned and began to shake his head, then stopped. He thought back on his life, no, he didn't know about Bad Wolf. His life as a Roman on the other hand. "I've seen the words in Rome. I was a Roman for a bit. But that was in an aborted timeline. It doesn't exist anymore, the Doctor fixed everything."

Rose raised an eyebrow and smirked. "Rory the Roman." She laughed lightly and walked towards another piece of the exhibit. Rory followed her. A hologram popped up and opened the room up. It looked as if the back wall had fallen away and an army of Daleks stood in their place. Rory jumped back, Rose looked over her shoulder at him and smiled. The Daleks behind her didn't move. Despite the reality of their appearance, they were just pictures.

The hologram changed to another image. Rory stepped forward again. This image was still a Dalek, but it was huge. It towered over the two companions, long legs that looked half like shields and half designed off of spiders sprouted from it. Beneath it hung attached a glass container, inside was the face of a Dalek.

Rory frowned, disgusted by the sight. "What is it?" He knew it was a Dalek, but he'd never seen one quite like it. Rose touched the control panel and froze the image so it wouldn't move.

"It's the Emperor of the Daleks."

Instead of seeming shocked, Rory only looked more confused. "The Daleks have an Emperor?"

Rose smiled wickedly. "Not anymore." She looked to Rory. "Bad Wolf killed it, she turned it to dust." The tone of her voice when she said it gave her away.

"You were there?"

"In a manner of speakin'." She was as cryptic as the Doctor, Rory realised. Possibly worse. "I was much younger though." She sighed and closed her eyes. "So much younger than I am now."

"Are you human?"

Rose's eyes opened and she looked at Rory amusingly. "You know, I really thought it was going to be Amy who interrogated me." She smiled softly. "I'm quite glad that the Doctor will have to deal with tha' rage instead." Rory winced as he thought about the Doctor. There was going to be nothing left of the alien when Amy was done with him. "No, Rory. I'm not human."

Rory nodded once and followed Rose as she moved onto another piece of the exhibit. The Dalek Emperor flashed and disappeared, gone. A vertical display case showed a piece of a brick wall with a spray painted red wolf against it. It said it was from the 21 Century.

"So where are you from?"

"Earth."

"But you said –"

"I was born on Earth." She turned and looked at him. "I was born human. But something happened." Rose smiled brilliantly, and Rory knew.

"You met the Doctor."

She nodded slowly. "Yeah. He was different, a different regeneration actually." She paused and waited, but when Rory showed no confusion about regeneration, Rose continued. "We travelled… Then the Daleks happened." Rory watched her face sadden, all the happiness slowly sucked away from her eyes. "I opened the TARDIS, her heart, and I looked into it. Do you know what's in the heart of a TARDIS, Rory?" Rory shook his head, eyes wide. "The Time Vortex, tha's what. I absorbed it and I became the Bad Wolf, I destroyed the Daleks."

"So… you're the Goddess of Time?"

She smiled. "Don't usually go by it, but yeah. Guess I am."

Rory nodded and tried to absorb that information. He looked around and walked up to another exhibit. Rose hesitated and then followed. "Are you still… Bad Wolf?" He asked as he looked at the World War II bomb with the words 'Shlechter Wolf' printed across it.

"Yes… and no." Rory rolled his eyes at that and Rose laughed. "Sorry, but it's not like it's simple, yeah? I mean, sure, I've still got bits of the Time Vortex in me. But I can't dissolve a Dalek to dust again."

"You can't?" Rory watched her face as she thought.

"I probably could. But the amount of power that would exert is dangerous. It might even kill me."

"You say that like it's difficult to do it."

Rose nodded. "It is. I'm not human anymore, Rory. When I became Bad Wolf, I changed myself. I became immortal, powerful and partially all knowing. Though I try to stay away from that last bit. Foreknowledge is dangerous." She sounded like she was reciting words told to her, Rory thought. He briefly wondered who taught her how to use her gifts.

Rose reached forward with a smile and touched the bomb. Her mind flickered to Jack. She'd need to go visit him now that she was back. Then she turned around and walked along the length of a long display case. She dragged her finger along the glass casing.

"But you care about the Doctor." Rory said, he hadn't moved. At Rose's confused glance he walked towards her and leaned against the glass case that separated them. "You care about him, you became immortal. You became one of the few people in the world who'll probably ever be able to be with him forever, and you left him anyways. You care about him, but you fell in love with someone else." He didn't mean it to sound accusatory; it had just come out that way. He pulled back from the display, an uncomfortable look on his face. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean it that way. Look, the Doctor's my friend. I just want to understand."

Rose stared down at the glass box. "I've only ever been in love with one man, Rory. The Doctor." Rory frowned at that. His stomach seemed to drop beneath the floor. Amy loved him, he knew Amy loved him. But if Rose could love the Doctor and still marry someone else, what did that mean about Amy and him? Rose watched the conflict cross Rory's face and seemed to understand what he was thinking. "Rory, if I tell you this next bit. Don't tell Amy, she seems like the type that would take it out of hand. And I really don't want her to bring it to the Doctor, it isn't fair." Rory nodded slowly. He didn't promise anything aloud. He knew if Amy needed to know, then he'd tell her no matter what.

Rose licked her lips and stared off into nothing as she gathered her thoughts. She let out a strained laugh. "Alright… uh, simple version. I got locked in an alternate universe away from the Doctor." Rory's eyebrows shot up. That was the last thing he was expecting to hear. "When I finally made my way back, a lot of stuff was happenin'." She made a face and Rory could tell this was a _very_ simple version. "The Doctor got hurt, but instead of regenerating he just healed himself and all the other energy went into this hand that he'd lost a long time ago. Yeah, don't ask. Anyways, later on, more stuff happened. And then the hand grew… a sor' of, half human half Time Lord version of the Doctor. All the same memories, everythin'.

"When the Doctor took my mum home back to the parallel universe, he left me with the human Doctor." She paused and smiled. "We could live a normal life together. Took a bit of time to get back into the swing of things. But eventually we got married." Rose looked at Rory, who looked beyond stunned. "When I tell you I loved only the Doctor, it's true. I married the Doctor. I lived a long, happy life with him. But after he died… after my great grandchildren died, I knew that it was time for me to go. So I found a way home.

"Every companion loves the Doctor in their own way, Rory. But the way Amy looks when she's starin' at you. Nothing can compete with that. That's true love."

Rory was silent for a while as he digested Rose's story. He knew there was more to it, so much more. One day, he really hoped he'd get to sit down and listen to it all. For now though… "I won't tell Amy. Not about your husband… But the other stuff, Bad Wolf. She has a right to know."

Rose smiled and her eyes glowed gold for a blink of an eye. "Well come on then Roronicus, we've got an apple on the loose. We should find the others."

Rory smiled and laughed. Her little snippets of insight didn't seem so ominous anymore. They headed out of the exhibit and back into the hall.

* * *

The Doctor threw open the TARDIS door and Amy rushed in, hoping to find her husband. The Doctor turned to Max and gestured for him to follow.

"Oh, I mustn't." Max politely declined. "I have to make sure the doors stay locked so no one enters the museum… I should also keep an eye on the director of the museum. Otherwise who knows what he'll get up to?"

The Doctor nodded. "No problem, Amy and I'll sort it." He turned to enter the TARDIS.

"Doctor."

He turned and looked at the smaller man. "I can't tell you how happy I am to see you and Rose together again. I feel as though… Maybe everything will turn out alright." The man nodded with tears in his eyes and scurried into his office. The Doctor stood at the entrance to the TARDIS and stared at where the man had disappeared to. Now that seemed odd.

"Doctor!" The Doctor turned and entered the TARDIS.

"Yes, Pond?" He responded politely as he closed the door and ran up to the console. He flicked a couple switches and typed some Time Lord jargon into the typewriter on the console.

"Rory and Rose aren't here."

The Doctor unsuccessfully held back a snort. "Of course not. I'm sure they're off somewhere getting into trouble with the authorities as we speak. Rose is quite jeopardy friendly, poor Rory, he has no clue what he's getting into."

Amy's eyes widened. "What!? Doctor! We have to go find them."

"Rose has her sonic and her vortex manipulator. She's more than able to take care of Rory, she used to work for Torchwood after all."

Amy stalked up to the Doctor and crossed her arms. The Doctor glanced at her from the corner of his eye. "While on the topic, Rose. Who is she?"

"Rose Marion Tyler."

"Where is she from?"

"Earth."

They glared at each other.

"I don't like her."

The Doctor smiled slowly. "Liar." He turned back to the console. "Now!" He continued typing. "I think I can figure a way to track down the apple using the TARDIS. Just give me a mo', then I can link it up to the sonic and we can trace it from there." The Doctor raced around to the other side of the console and pushed a couple buttons. "You see, the apple's infection is in the mind. It plays with the brainwaves and neurons. Increasing certain parts of the brain decreases others, so you've got wild humans with no inhibitions. Back to Ancient Greece 'cept everyone's an Emperor."

Amy nodded. "So what's Torchwood?"

The Doctor stopped and sent a disapproving look to his companion. "Torchwood? Really, Amy? Focus will you!" He turned back to the TARDIS. "Right, I think I've got it." The Doctor plugged his sonic into the console and swung the console screen towards him. He tapped it with his finger and waited as swirling Gallifreyan swept across the screen.

"I've never heard of it. Is it alien?"

The Doctor rolled his eyes. "Sort of." He glanced at Amy who was waiting with her eyebrows raised. He wasn't going to get out of this so easily. Really, he knew it was coming. At least he wasn't stuck with Rory; Rose would have to deal that one on her own. Poor Rose. "Torchwood was a secret government agency on Earth that dealt with aliens. Happy?"

She wasn't. "I've never heard of it."

"Hence the word 'secret'." The TARDIS _ping_ed and the Doctor grabbed his sonic screwdriver from the console.

Amy grabbed his arm before he could run past. "Seriously though, Doctor. You've never mentioned her before. You mentioned people you've travelled with before, but not Rose. I've never heard of a Rose before."

The Doctor frowned. "It's not something I like to talk about." Was all he said and then he brushed past her and was out the door.

"Or at all." She grumbled under her breath. Amy closed the TARDIS door behind her and found the Doctor staring at the entrance to the management office again. "You mentioned an alternate universe." The Doctor's head whipped around. "Earlier, you said Rose wandered off into an alternate universe."

"Pond." He said warningly.

"Just give me some answers Doctor. That's all I'm asking. You've brought this strange woman onto the TARDIS and expect us to live with her. You aren't even going to tell us anything about her? That's ridiculous!"

The Doctor glared at Amy. "If you want to know about Rose then ask her yourself."

Amy stared hard at him. They were yelling, they were properly yelling. But Amy had good reason. Rose was a stranger with some random powers that came from nowhere, and scary foreknowledge, not to mention her connection with the TARDIS. How could she not connect Rose to the astronaut on the beach at Lake Silencio? Amy had to know _something_, if only to stop future nightmares she knew were going to come that night. She took a different tactic. "Is she River?"

The Doctor chocked. He clearly wasn't expecting that one. "I'm _sorry_?"

"You know. River. Rose. Both start with an 'r' and they're both nature related. Vortex manipulator and a connection with the TARDIS, though a bit different clearly. But still, I mean. We don't even know who River is right? Or do you? Have you not told us?"

The Doctor licked his lips and his chest rose rapidly as his breathing picked up. "No… No I don't know who River is. But she's not Rose. Because I know who Rose is." The Doctor made a face. "And I know that Rose and River would probably not get a long… at all." He had really been avoiding the idea of Rose and River meeting. It wasn't a pleasant thought at all.

Amy's eyebrows rose. She thought the two would get a long great. They were both ominous, told little about themselves, and flirted with the Doctor in an ease that left her… _un_easy.

"Wait – you're making sense."

"I am?" Amy said as she shook her head. "I mean yes, yes I am."

The Doctor grabbed the sides of Amy's face and looked hard into her eyes. "The apple isn't affecting you. Why isn't it affecting you?" He let go and stepped back. "You were at the scene of the crime, right where the apple used to be. You should be going nuts, or trying desperately to find Rory but you aren't, you're worried about me." The Doctor began to pace and smacked his forehead once, twice. "Oh!" He spun back around to Amy. "The apple works on desires, specifically desires of love. But true love, you've already got true love. You're in love with Rory. It wouldn't affect you. You could probably even hold the apple and not be affected."

"Well what about you? Why aren't you affected?"

"I – I'm a Time Lord." He said it confidently, but Amy heard the tremor at the beginning of his words. She smiled deviously. One way or another, she was getting down to the bottom of this Rose thing.

"_RORY!_"

The Doctor and Amy froze as the word screamed out across the empty white hall. Then all at once they were running.

"ROSE! RORY! _ROSE!_"

* * *

Rose paused and looked behind her down the long white hall. They'd been walking for sometime and still hadn't come across any exhibit on 'Aphrodite's Apple'. Rory had fallen behind for a moment and Rose looked to him now. He was staring at the name to an exhibit, his face clearly puzzled.

"What's wrong?" She asked as she headed back towards him. He pointed to the title and cocked his head lightly to the side. "'The Last Centurion'? What's tha'?"

Instead of answering, Rory's confusion visibly deepened and he turned to her. "You don't know?"

Rose smiled and rolled her eyes. "Well I could easily figure it out, if ya like. But it sor' of seems like you know already."

"Uh… Yeah, I do. It's me, I'm the Last Centurion."

Understanding dawned on Rose. "Roronicus, so that's what tha' was from." Rose headed towards the exhibit and Rory followed.

"Yeah, but that never happened. The Doctor fixed it, right?"

The room was a triangle, smaller than a lot of other exhibits. In the centre of the room there was a case that held within it a Roman legion's armour. Rory instantly recognised it as the one he'd worn for a couple centuries, before going in disguise. Around the room were pictures and paintings of sightings of the Centurion up until World War II. Then there were a bunch theories on his disappearance, most of them conspiracy rubbish. One entire wall was dedicated to the timeline, and the story of the Pandorica.

Rose nodded and whistled. "You're a bit older than you look too, aren't you Centurion?" She glanced over her shoulder at him and smiled cheekily. Despite himself, Rory smiled back. "The Doctor probably did fix it, but timelines don't just die. Time doesn't die. It's constantly moving, constantly changin'. Just 'cause you were able to revert the world back to its original order, doesn't mean the previous one isn't still accessible." She turned back to the exhibit and stared at the armour. "Timelines are easy, universes on the other hand," she whistled, "tha's not so simple."

Rory stepped up beside Rose and raised his hand against the glass. Memories of that time flitted through his head. He could never forget any of that life. It would always remain inside of him. And despite his claims that he could keep it hidden, he still woke with nightmares.

"The Last Centurion. I like to think I'm not that anymore… but it changed me."

Rose nodded. "I know what you mean. It never really leaves does it?" Rory saw Rose's eyes flash gold in the reflection of the case and watched her face quickly turned to horror. Rose spun around as something slammed into Rory. Glass shattered.

"Rory!" Rose called out as she punched one of the attackers in the stomach. Someone else came up and swung. Rose's vision swam and she stumbled.

Sounds of a scuffle echoed behind her. She felt someone grab her hand, "Rose, run!" Then Rory's face came before her and she almost smiled with relief. They ran towards the door. A hand grabbed Rose's ankle and she cried out as she fell forward a the same time as someone pushed her.. Her head slammed against the floor and everything went black for a moment.

She gasped away to the sound of singing. The TARDIS. Oh… she'd died. Rory!

Rose jumped up and two people quickly grabbed her. "Rory!" She struggled against the muscle pulling her away from her friend. She saw Rory fall to the ground and a glint of a sword – where had they gotten a sword? – "_RORY!_" – and then –

_ POP!_

The sound of the sword hitting flesh echoed in her mind.

The men released her and pushed her into a white room. _Rory_. She didn't fight them.

A door shut behind her and Rose turned to see she was in some sort of prison. There was no door, it had vanished when her captors left. _Murderers_. They weren't captors. They'd murdered her, and they'd murdered – _Rory_. Her heart broke. Oh Amy. What was she going to tell Amy?

Rose wrapped her arms around herself and turned back around. Someone else was standing on the other side of the prison, staring at Rose with something akin to disbelief.

"And just where the bloody hell have you been?" The woman raged as she swept towards Rose.

Rose's eyes widened and glowed a bright gold. Knowledge from the Time Vortex rushed into her mind, and with it, confusion and… happiness. Rose lowered her arms and smiled cheekily at the woman. "River Song." She greeted.

* * *

Thanks for all the comments you guys. I think it's pretty evident what I decided to do. This is, clearly, an original adventure of mine that I've decided to put it. For those of you who don't really like to read those sorts of fanfics, hang in there. Right after this adventure will be The Rebel Flesh, The Almost People, and then A Good Man Goes to War. -.- What have I gotten myself into? However! It really makes my day to read your comments. So please, post me your favourite part or your favourite quote from this chapter, or even so far! I do love to hear feed back! Thanks for reading! :)


	4. True Love (Part Two): Fact

"And just where the bloody hell have you been?" The woman raged as she swept towards Rose.

Rose's eyes widened and glowed a bright gold. Knowledge from the Time Vortex rushed into her mind, and with it, confusion and… happiness. Rose lowered her arms and smiled cheekily at the woman. "River Song." She greeted.

River stomped up to the blonde and glared. "Is this some kind of joke? Is that it?"

Rose's smile faded. "I'm sorry?"

River let out a huff of air. "You're just like the Doctor." How could she be mad at Rose if she didn't even know what she'd done yet? River straightened her back and held out her hand. "Doctor River Song; and you're Rose Tyler, companion of the Doctor." Rose shook the other woman's hand. A nervous smile on her face.

This wasn't what Rose had expected. She'd used Bad Wolf to see who River was, the child of Amy and Rory Pond. She also knew the two would be close, and trust each other greatly. Beyond that, she was a bit at a loss. Except for what her husband had told her. The Doctor had said River Song had whispered something precious to him in The Library. Rose knew she could look further and see the exact nature of their relationship. To see her own and Rivers future if she wanted to; or River's and the Doctor's. But foreknowledge was dangerous, the Doctor had taught her that.

River glanced at Rose's wrist. "Your vortex manipulator won't work. I already tried mine." She held up her own wrist and tapped some buttons on it. It was dead. Rose glanced up at the ceiling and looked around. She didn't see anything, but there had to be some sort of electrical charge impairing the tech.

Rose nodded and looked back to the woman. "How long have you been here?" Rose gestured at River's vortex manipulator. "May I?" River didn't even hesitate in removing the machine and handing it to the blonde. Rose tried desperately not to show her surprise. River trusted her with that? Rose looked down at the device. She could easily pop out of there with her own, and take River too, but Rose wanted answers.

"…a week, I think." River was saying. Rose turned her attention to the curly haired brunette. "I think time here might be compressed. I haven't gotten hungry at all." Rose pulled out her sonic screwdriver. River raised her eye brows. "Now that looks handy. Where did you get it?"

Rose frowned. River trusted her enough to give her the vortex manipulator, but she didn't know Rose well enough to know she had a sonic screwdriver? River had also called Rose the Doctor's companion, if River had known Rose for long then she'd know that wasn't Rose's first title anymore. Rose was the Bad Wolf. "I made it." Rose commented. River didn't seem all too surprised. So River knew she was smart enough to do that. Curious.

Rose scanned the area and looked at the readings on the sonic. She shook her head. "Time isn't compressed in here. Must be something in the oxygen. If they're feedin' you nutrients then you won't get hungry." Rose held up River's vortex manipulator and began poking around with the sonic. She glanced up at River, who had been analyzing Rose with a look akin to awe. It vanished the second Rose looked up. Oh this was dangerous, Rose thought, this was very, very dangerous. "What's the last thing you remember?"

River shrugged. "I was in a museum. Someone came up behind me; before I could pull my blaster out they were on me. Next thing I knew they threw me in here." She pulled a gun from a holster at her hip. "Still have it, but no door to blast so." She twirled it around her finger and put it back. Rose frowned at the gun but nodded. "Are you with the Doctor?" She wasn't sure what it was, but Rose could hear something else behind that question. It sounded almost like dread. Rose nodded. She didn't mention Rory. Her heart tore at the thought. _Oh Rory_. A shadow crossed River's face but disappeared as quickly as it had come. She smiled forcibly. "Well then. It shouldn't take too long to escape. The Doctor never leaves a companion behind."

Rose turned back to the vortex manipulator. The warbling of her sonic filled the awkward silence. Rose paused and looked up. "How do you know me exactly?"

River smiled past the pain in her eyes. "Oh Rose. _Spoilers_." River turned around and walked a few paces away.

Something was wrong. The thought entered her head much like it had with the TARDIS. A song, like the TARDIS' entered her mind. It came from River. _A daughter of the TARDIS_. Of course River would have her own song. River Song after all. Rose focused on the tune. It was low and lamenting, sad. Her eyes widened. "Oh River." She whispered. The woman turned around curiously. "This isn't the end. You don't die here."

River's eyes widened. "How do you know?" She asked sharply.

Rose shook her head. "You run backwards to the Doctor, not to me. You don't ever have to fear meeting me." River looked like she didn't know if she wanted to laugh, cry, or scream. She nodded once, ever the soldier. "I think I've almost got it figured." Rose gestured to River's vortex manipulator. "Once I've finished updating it, it should bypass any securities they've put into place."

"Then we'll find the Doctor." River took a deep breath, her posture straight.

Rose frowned at the woman. "Does it ever bother you? Bottlin' up your emotions like that? I told you that you don't need to fear me, yeah? Anything you say, I either know or could easily figure out myself."

River levelled a steely stare on Rose. It was cold, in command, and completely unyielding. "My life isn't normal, Rose. I have to keep my emotions in check. One wrong look and an enemy can have me. Or worse, I could give away future knowledge." Rose ignored her little spiel.

"You don't like me." River didn't respond. "But you also can't seem to hate me." The other woman looked away. "I jus' want to understand River."

River looked back sharply. "Oh and I don't? Despite what you may think Rose, I don't really know you. And now I'm beginning to think everything I did know was an act."

Rose smiled. "Now were gettin' somewhere. Twenty questions, yeah? Answer for an answer. If the question is too dangerous, we can ask for a different one. What do you say River?" Rose looked around the prison and made a face. "Locked in here for a week, alone? I'd be dyin' for a bit of risk, but maybe that's just me…"

Very slowly, a smile crept across River Song's face.

* * *

The Doctor and Amy raced into an exhibit only to find it empty. Glass was shattered across the ground and what looked to be armour scattered with it. Blood pooled around an area near a bloody sword.

"Oh my god." Amy gasped and turned around. She looked to the Doctor, her eyes wide as saucers. He glanced at her and quickly unfroze. The Doctor closed the distance between them and pulled her into a hug. He stroked her hair as she shook. "Is it Rory's? Is it his blood?"

"I don't know." The Doctor whispered. "I'm going to check." He slowly pulled away from Amelia and took out his sonic. It warbled in the silence of the exhibit. He didn't say anything.

"Oh my _god_." Amy cried out, taking his silence for what it was. "Not _again_. I can't do this again."

The Doctor turned around and hope crept into his heart. "He's not dead." The Doctor informed his nearly hysterical companion.

"What?" Amy latched onto the hope instantly. "How? How do you know?"

The Doctor gestured to the exhibit title. "The Last Centurion. Max said that the director of the museum was kidnapping people as exhibits. What's better then having an exhibit about the person then having the person as an exhibit?" He turned back around and looked at the broken glass. They'd fought, but clearly they were taken. That meant the director had more people under his command, willing to kidnap and possibly kill.

"So where did they go?"

The Doctor sniffed the air. "Ozone. They teleported out. Probably with a vortex manipulator. We won't be able to track them."

"What about Rose?" Amy asked, fear for her husband gone, she moved onto the next thing to be considered. She saw the Doctor's shoulder's tense and when he turned around she certainly wasn't prepared for what she saw there. Amy Pond had never seen the Doctor look so furious. The green of his eyes were consumed by his pupils, the tension in his very being created an almost palpable atmosphere around him.

"If Rose had used her vortex manipulator, she'd have Rory and she'd have gone to us or the TARDIS. No. She's been taken too." He took a deep breath. "We need to see Max. He'll know where they are." The Doctor stormed out of the room and raced back towards the TARDIS. Amy just barely kept up behind him.

When they reached Max's office, the Doctor threw the door open and barged in. Amy was hot on his heels. The room was empty.

"Where did he go!?" The Doctor swooped down on Max's desk and threw the papers off. Objects went crashing to the ground. Amy winced at the sound of something shattering.

"Doctor. _Doctor_." He spun around. She stepped toward the man, more of one now then he'd ever been before. "We'll find them, okay? Nothing is going to happen to them. Like you said, Rose can take care of herself. And Rory… well he was a Roman for over a thousand years."

The tension fell away from the Doctor and he collapsed against the desk. He crushed the heels of his palms against his eyes. "I should have gone after them."

Amy sat down beside him on the desk. "You didn't know this was going to happen."

He turned to her desperately. "You wanted to find them."

"And we _will_, Doctor." Amy stood up and looked around the office. She turned back to the Doctor. "Come on then, Doctor. Up you get. We've got to find that apple, save my husband and reunite you with Rose. Again." The Doctor grinned despite himself. Oh, Pond. Mind set, he pushed his fear for Rory and Rose to the side. They would be fine, he promised himself.

He jumped up, all boundless energy again. "Right. Apple." The Doctor pulled out his sonic and flipped it on. "I've already programmed this to find the apple so…" The Doctor frowned and turned in a slow circle. He flicked the sonic off and attempted to slide over the desk, but only ended up falling over the end. Amy ran over just as the Doctor popped back up. He raised his hand and brought the glowing gold apple in it to eye level.

"What's that doing in Max's office?" Amy asked, her voice all awe. The apple was gorgeous and glimmering.

"I don't know." The Doctor replied slowly. He examined the apple and scanned it with the sonic. "But Max was acting odd. Well, more odd that usual. And he didn't seem all too affected by the apple's magic."

"So you think he did it? Why?"

The Doctor shrugged. "I don't know, but I'm sure –"

_POP!_

Amy stumbled and the Doctor quickly steadied her. They looked around. The room they'd been teleported to was black with short and wide halls. "Doctor?"

"Yes Pond?"

"Where are we?"

The Doctor looked around. The room was wide and circular; it was also sort of domed shape, except for the multifaceted appearance of the ceiling and walls. "At a guess? I'd say the ship of the Chelonians."

"You mean the ship that has the aliens that want the golden apple?"

"Yes.

"The one we currently posses?"

"Yes." He looked behind him at Amy. The Doctor winked and tossed her the apple. "Come along, Pond." Then he headed off through the spaceship. Amy groaned and followed after him. She sent a silent prayer, that wherever Rose and Rory were, that they were okay.

* * *

Rose sat in the middle of the white walled cell across from River Song. She was still fiddling with the vortex manipulator, which was proving harder to fix then she'd originally assumed. She nodded her head at River. "You go first, River."

River pulled out her sonic blaster and fiddled with the dials on the side while she thought. She'd never had an opportunity like this before. Rose Tyler, she could ask her anything she wanted. But this Rose was from the past, very far in the past. River had no clue what the woman did, or did not know. "Do you know who I am?"

Rose cocked her head to the side and glanced up at River from beneath her lashes. She kept most of her attention on her work, but managed to pass a small smile to River. "Do you mean, do I know you're an archaeologist who sometimes travels with the Doctor? Or that you're Melody Pond, daughter of Amy and Rory Pond? A child of the TARDIS."

River's eyes widened slowly. She opened her mouth but Rose shook her head. "Oh no," she said, "it's my turn now. How do _you_ know _me_?"

River licked her lips and looked around the empty cell. "I met you when I met the Doctor." She replied slowly. Rose nodded and waited for her to continue. When she didn't, Rose smirked. Bad habits died hard, Rose surmised, and River had an awful one. "You said you could easily find out any information I didn't tell you. How?" River's eyes analysed Rose, as if looking for a device on her that would explain it.

Rose stopped working on the vortex manipulator and looked up. How to explain all of time and space and her connection with it? Well, River was an archaeologist. "Bad Wolf."

River's eyes bugged out. "I'm _sorry_?"

"You wanted to know how I could figure it out, yeah? The answer's Bad Wolf." Rose looked down at the vortex manipulator. Almost done.

"Bad Wolf is a mythical creature, said to be the Goddess of Time. Her words spread across all of time and space. You expect me to believe you know her? That she would help you?" River frowned at Rose, disappointed.

Rose smiled down at her sonic as she turned it back on and went to work. "Believe whatever you want, Melody Pond." She glanced back up and her eyes glowed gold. "But _I_ am Bad Wolf." River's mouth snapped shut and lips pursed into a straight line. Rose idly noted the increase of breath in the other woman, but didn't comment. "How long has it been since you last saw me River?"

At that, River's face saddened and she looked away again. "Years." She whispered. "I haven't seen you in years." Rose stopped her sonic and pressed a few buttons on the vortex manipulator. She peeked up at River who was staring at Rose with a lost look in her eyes. "I didn't realise it would be so long. I thought I'd see you often, while I studied in school." She smiled and failed to hide her laugh, it wasn't a happy one. "I spent most of my time trying to find the Doctor; you know what else I studied? Bad Wolf. She kept popping up everywhere and I thought – Oh, why not. It'll make searching for a mad man all the more bearable. And now I've found the Doctor. And now I've found you."

Rose smiled with her tongue between her teeth. "Now just try gettin' rid of us." River tossed her head back a bit and laughed. Rose passed the woman's vortex manipulator back to her. "Right, well that's fixed." Rose hopped up to her feet and River followed suit. "River?" The woman finished buckling her device back on and looked at Rose. "Do you trust me?"

"Of course." She didn't even hesitate.

Rose wanted to leave it there, but really, she couldn't resist. "Why?"

River smirked. "_Spoilers_." She threw her head back and laughed again.

Rose groaned, but she was smiling. "An' here I was thinkin' I made progress with you." She shook her head.

River smiled lovingly at the woman. "You did." She whispered. She wasn't sure if Rose had heard her, but the other woman smiled brightly and launched herself into River's arms. River smiled and wrapped Rose up in a warm hug.

When Rose pulled back she rested her hands on the other woman's cheeks, still smiling. "Well come on then, Pond. We've got to find the Doctor. Lord knows what he's gotten himself into." She pulled back and the two women instantly went to their vortex manipulators.

"We're on a rebuilding planet." River explained as she typed into the device on her wrist. "It was destroyed several centuries ago, this is the new colony. Despite that, there are still several million life forms around. They could be any of them." She frowned at her screen. "There are other prisoners on this level."

Rose looked over at River's vortex manipulator. "When we find the Doctor, we'll sort out this mess. I scanned for a bi-vascular system. Oh! Got him. He's… orbitin' the planet on a spaceship. It seems to be Chelonian. Chelonian?" Rose's eyes glowed gold. "Oh…" She glanced up at River. "We should go. The sooner everyone is released from the apple's hold, the sooner we can get the prisoners out."

_POP!_

* * *

"So why weren't there any Chelonians in the room we appeared in?"

"They were probably on their way. Chelonians can be a bit slow sometimes." The Doctor sped down a squat black hall until he and Amy came across a window. The Doctor looked out. He winced. "Not good." They were in outer space. Amy looked out the window and stared at the foreign sky.

"So how do we get back? Doctor?" She looked to him; he was heading down the hallway again. Amy sighed and raced after him. "Doctor," she hissed, "what do we do?"

The Doctor gave Amy a quick look and continued forward. "We have to put the apple back into a stasis chamber, like the one in the museum. Then the Chelonians should go back home."

Amy glared at the Doctor's back. "Should?" Footsteps echoed down the hallway. The Doctor grabbed Amy and dove into a small alcove in the hallway. They waited in silence as tall, turtle looking aliens marched by with bulky shell covered torsos. They had long arms with sharp black talons at the edges of their fingers. A sharp beak replaced what would be otherwise the rest of their face, and instead of having teeth their beaks were ridged and hard. Their turtle like appearance ended abruptly at their legs, where they looked distinctly human.

When the Chelonians passed, Amy turned back to the Doctor. "Why wouldn't they go back home?" Amy glared at the alien as she crushed the mythic apple to her chest.

"Yes. Well…" The Doctor fixed his bowtie. "Chelonians by the 60 Century have lost their home and Empire to a huge war. This being the late 59 Century. Well…"

"It might already be gone." Amy supplied. The Doctor looked up at the read head meekly. Amy groaned. "Fine, so what do we do? Should we talk to them? Try and negotiate a deal, yeah?"

"A deal for that apple?" A deep voice said behind them. Amy and the Doctor spun around and faced the scowling Chelonian. Well, he appeared to be scowling, Amy thought. She couldn't really tell. "That sounds agreeable."

Two more Chelonians came forward and grabbed the Doctor and Amy by the arms. Amy struggled for a bit, but eventually gave up when she saw the Doctor being calmly led away. She kept a hold of the apple, clutching it against her and refusing to let go.

The two were led down a long hallway, squat and black like all the others. Eventually the hallway opened up to a control centre for the ship. The room was domed, like the first area they'd appeared in, but much bigger. The ceiling and walls were multifaceted and reflected the lights from the work stations of the Chelonians flying the ship. At the back of the room and sitting upon a raised dais was a black throne. It was made of the same black material as the rest of the ship. An old spotted turtle sat in the throne with wrinkled skin and a curved beak. Its black beady eyes stared at the Doctor and Amy as they were brought before it.

The Doctor bowed flamboyantly. "God-Mother." He greeted. Amy glanced between the turtle and the Doctor, she quickly curtsied. "How can we be of service? You did call us onto your ship after all." The Doctor tossed back his fringe and smiled. Amy continued to stare warily at the turtle, trying desperately not to think about the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

"Doctor," the turtle said in a deep, gravely voice, "we want Aphrodite's Apple. And we will use whatever means necessary to get it." The Doctor glared darkly at the Chelonian God-Mother. He did not like threats.

Amy glared as well. "What are you going to do? Eat us?"

The Chelonians laughed. Amy's eyes widened. Oh my god, she thought, they were going to eat them.

The Doctor sighed and dropped his face into his hands. He turned to his companion. "Amy… Chelonians are herbivores… they – they don't eat _humans_." He sounded disgusted at the very idea. Amy blushed furiously and stepped back, instantly having decided she would not actively participate in the conversation anymore. "Right, anyway…" The Doctor turned back to the snickering God-Mother. "I can't just give you the apple, it's dangerous."

The God-Mother scowled. "Then we will poison all the waters on this rebuilding planet and destroy its life."

"What!?" The Doctor looked more confused then outraged. "Why? What does this planet have anything to do with the apple? We have it, not the planet."

"Of course not, Doctor. But we've faced you before, even if you have not. And though your face has changed, your habits have not. You won't stand by and watch a civilization starve."

The Doctor glared venomously at the turtle and fumed. "Yes, you're right. I won't let a civilization die. But if I give you the apple it will pass from place to place and hundreds of civilizations will fall. And I can't let that happen either."

The two aliens stared at each other a moment longer, both silent. "It seems we have arrived at an impasse." The Doctor nodded mutely. He scanned the room. There wasn't a teleport in sight. He had to get Amy back to the museum though, she could protect the apple. He glanced at Amy holding it, she was perfectly fine. His assumption had been right earlier. Amy had the love she wanted, the apple had nothing to activate within her mind. Once Amy was safe, he could deal with their tech that would pollute the water.

He turned back to the Chelonian leader. "It appears so." The Doctor said nothing else. All he needed was a distraction, and then Amy could run to the teleport. He could give her his sonic and she'd be able to get back. Of course he'd be left without one then, but he could manage. Sort of.

The God-Mother nodded at one of his soldiers. The Chelonian rushed forward in an unexpected burst of speed and grabbed Amy. The Doctor jumped towards her but another Chelonian soldier restrained him.

"What are you doing? Stop it! Stop this _now_!" The turtle soldier raised its claw and pressed the black talons against Amy's throat and paused, awaiting further orders. Amy leaned as far away from the talons as she could, her neck strained at an awkward angle. The apple in her hands was pushed close to her breast as she protected it with her life. "Let. Her. Go." The Doctor ordered in a deceptively calm voice, his stare never wavering from his companions wide eyed watch.

"Give us the apple." The God-Mother countered. Amy's fingers slowly turned white from her grasp on the apple. She watched the Doctor for any sign of a plan, an escape, hell she'd even take a stupid catchphrase at that point. The man looked frantically back and forth between the God-Mother and his companion. No catchphrase. "We've been watching you, Doctor." The God-Mother continued venomously. "You've already lost one companion today, are you prepared to lose another?" The Doctor froze.

"No!" Amy cried out. She drove her heel into the Chelonian's shin behind her then ripped herself from his grasp. She glared up at the God-Mother and shook her head. "I don't believe you."

"Your mate is dead." He informed her uncaringly. "He died by the very sword he had carried around for centuries, protecting you with. Give us the apple, and we'll spare you."

Amy clutched the apple in one hand and pointed at the Chelonian leader. "No! I will not give up on him. Rory is not dead. As long as I live, as long as I breathe I will never stop giving up on that man. And nothing you say or do can change that. I love him and I know, without a doubt. Rory Williams is not dead." The golden apple sparked. Amy cried out and dropped it to the floor, quickly cradling her singed hand.

"What is this?" The God-Mother demanded. "What have you done?"

The Doctor flipped out his sonic screwdriver and rushed toward Amy. He scanned the apple. "You shorted it out!" The Doctor grabbed Amy's cheeks and kissed her forehead as he laughed. "Oi!" He pulled back and glared at her sharply. "Amelia Pond, you destroyed a priceless, ancient artefact."

Amy looked at the Doctor and then the Chelonian leader and back again. "Yeah, not really our biggest problem right now, Doctor."

"Right, yes." He turned back to the God-Mother and quickly pocketed his sonic. "The apple's dead." He explained to the confused alien. "Its magic died with it. There is nothing left for you here, return home."

The God-Mother growled. "Aphrodite's Apple was our last chance in winning our Empire back, Doctor. You've doomed my race, so I'll doom this one. Know that you will always be the prophesier of doom. Where you go, a disease is left." An alarm blared and flashing mauve lights appeared from the ceiling.

"Intruders on board!" A Chelonian hollered.

The Doctor grabbed Amy's and they ran from the room. "And that's our queue."

"Doctor?" Amy yelled over the alarms as they went. "How did I break the apple? How do you even break an apple?"

"Not now Pond I'm trying to es–" He stopped abruptly at the entrance to a hydraulics room. The Doctor smiled and raced in.

"What are we doing? I thought we were escaping?"

The Doctor scanned a machine in the room with his sonic. He quickly popped off the cover to the control panel. "The Chelonian's threatened this world. I can't let them pollute the waters here. The civilization would fall, again. This here," he tapped the machine as he worked, "is what they'll use to do it. If I muck up their systems, they won't be able to use it."

"That's great Doctor, but we really should be going, yeah?"

"Couldn't have agreed more." Amy spun around and launched herself into Rose's arms.

"Oh thank god you're okay." Rose laughed, pleasantly surprised by Amy's actions. Her eyes lighted up on the Doctor, staring at her over Amy's shoulder. His eyes glimmered and he smiled happily at her. Rose let go of Amy and rushed over to hug him. She laughed as he lifted her off her feet and swung her back and forth.

"The Chelonian's are on their way." Amy looked back around and, much to her disbelief saw River. The archaeologist smiled at the woman's confusion. "Hello Amy, good to see you again." She turned to the Doctor. "Hello sweetie. Good to see you've found the hydraulics. I'm assuming there's a reason. Best finish up, though. I'd really _hate_ to use my gun." River smiled wickedly and took out her blaster.

The Doctor shook his head, glanced once more between River and Rose then went back to the machine he'd been tinkering with. Rose pulled out her own sonic and they talked back and forth as they tried to find a way to impair the machine.

River and Amy stood by the door, keeping watch. The alarms still blared from around them. There were sounds of movement coming from both directions down the halls but no Chelonians had made it their way yet. Amy leaned against the door and watched River. "How'd you yet here then?"

"I was captured by the museum director a week ago."

Understanding dawned on Amy. "Oh! You're the one he took."

"Yes," River replied tightly, "among a few others. We need to get out of here and set the prisoners free." She glanced back at Rose and the Doctor. They were almost done.

Amy also glanced back at them. "You run backwards from the Doctor right?"

River narrowed her eyes, already knowing where Amy was going with this. "Yes."

"So you've met Rose before?" Of course she had.

River sighed. "Amy, if you have any questions about Rose you really should ask her yourself."

Amy crossed her arms and sighed, put out. "That's what the Doctor said."

"He's not wrong."

"Done!" Rose chirped. River and Amy quickly joined the other two. "Right, River and I have our vortex manipulators, yeah? Partner up! We'll head back down to the museum now."

River nodded and quickly typed the coordinates into the device on her wrist. She took Amy's hand and placed it over the vortex manipulator then slammed her hand down on one of the buttons.

_POP!_

They disappeared, leaving behind the scent of ozone and a small puff of smoke.

Rose turned to the Doctor and smiled. "Ready?" The Doctor nodded. Rose took one of the Doctor's hands and wrapped it around her waist. "Hold on tight, cowboy."

_POP!_

The hallway was tall, white and curved at the top. They were back in the museum. River tapped a few buttons on her vortex manipulator. At the sound of their arrival, she turned to Rose and the Doctor. "We're in the basement again. It used to hold exhibits not on display, but the director quickly converted it into his personal People Warehouse." She looked up and saw the Doctor take his arm from around Rose's waist. She swallowed and turned back to the long hallway, putting her back to the two.

River always knew this was coming. She knew this would eventually happen. She'd been a fool to think otherwise. She sighed. It would have been so much easier if she hated Rose for it.

"Righ'" Rose said, "you mentioned other prisoners down here. We should take care of that after we've dealt with the apple."

"Oh!" The Doctor's head shot up and he spun around from where he'd been inspecting a wall. "Already taken care of. Amy shorted it out."

River frowned. "How do you short out an apple?"

"Thank you!" Amy exclaimed.

The Doctor ignored her. "The apple was technology. Very advanced and frankly a very interesting piece of it too. It tapped into the brain centres and…" All three women crossed their arms and gave him a look. "Oh fine… It was scienc-y and then Amy stopped it. The apple fed off of desire and love, and it created false love to further feed off of it."

"Like a parasite." Amy piped in. She smiled proudly.

"Exactly!" He tapped her nose and then turned back to the wall he was examining. "But Amy had what she loved already, she had Rory. And when that love was threatened, she brought forth a huge wave of emotion." He turned back around. "It's not just fairytale stuff. True love. Amy's undying love for Rory was too much for the apple. The connections of the brain creating that and sending it to the apple were too much. It short circuited." The Doctor knocked on the wall and leaned his ear against it. "And with it," he continued, "she stopped all the madness that was spreading. People should already be going back to normal. By tomorrow, it'll be all a bad dream. A really vivid bad dream. That actually happened." He turned to his companions. "You know, there's a door here."

Rose nodded. "Yeah it's one of the cells for the prisoners." She glanced down at the device on her wrist. "No one in that one though. There are some that way." She nodded down the hall. Rose frowned and tapped the device a couple of more times. "Looks like most people are startin' to escape. We should help."

Amy looked down the long hall. "Is Rory in one of those cells?"

River looked up from her own vortex manipulator. "Yes. I've got his signature. We can trace him from this. Come on then."

Amy fell back behind the Doctor and River to walk with Rose. She looked to the blonde and then back down the hall. She did it twice more before finally speaking. "Look, I'm not going to pretend to know your connection with the TARDIS, but from what I can understand. You two have some sort of connection, right?" Rose looked at her, but said nothing. "Is Rory alive? There was blood in the Centurion exhibit and the God-Mother said the Doctor had lost a companion and you're still alive so I was… I was wondering…"

Rose bit her lip. "The last thing I saw and heard, was Rory get stabbed by the sword." Amy's face remained fierce, she would not give in. She watched Rose intently as the woman's eyes glowed gold. "He's alive." The blonde confirmed a moment later. She smiled in relief with Amy. Rose hadn't even checked earlier if Rory was alive. She'd seen and heard the blow he'd sustained, no one could have survived that. Rory was an incredibly lucky man.

The Doctor glanced at River. "So… You met Rose then."

River didn't even look up from her vortex manipulator. "Yes, dear. I actually met Rose a very long time ago."

The Doctor winced. "I'm sorry River." And he sounded it. He cared for her, deeply. River vaguely thought that that was the reason she wasn't so upset. Or maybe it was because Rose was one of the most incredibly women in the world. Or because the Doctor loved River in his own way. Or because she was with her parents again, it'd been almost a year since she saw them. No. River felt the excitement in the pit of her stomach. With one lost soul comes another, she thought.

River shook her head. "Don't be Doctor. I always knew this was coming." She looked at him and smiled. "Just because Rose is back, it doesn't mean I won't see you. Oh and believe me, you've got lots left to do with me." She laughed as her memories of his future adventures rushed through her mind.

"Oh River Song." The Doctor said adoringly. "Will I ever figure you out?"

"I sure hope so. I might get tired of this game sooner or later."

River walked up to a white wall and the Doctor soniced open a control panel. He leaned against the wall beside it and crossed his arms. The Doctor smiled crookedly at her. "No you won't." River laughed her agreement back. She could do this forever. But this chapter of her life was ending. The Doctor was starting a new journey, and so was she.

River's fingers flew over the keyboard on the panel as she worked to open the door. The Doctor waved his screwdriver in the air, taunting her. She rolled her eyes. Oh the man was insufferable when he was childish, River thought. She nodded her head at him and smiled anyways. "If it's all the same to you sweetie, I should be getting back to Stormcage. I've been missing for a week after all. They must be going right out of their minds."

The Doctor frowned. "You're leaving?"

River began typing in the coordinates on her vortex manipulator. "It's not like you need me here Doctor. This is all just about wrapped up. Besides, I feel like if I stay I'll get caught up in another adventure."

"And that's a bad thing?"

River didn't smile. She turned and looked at Amy who had fallen behind with Rose. The Doctor looked too. "Yes. It would be."

"You know what's wrong." It wasn't an accusation, more a statement of fact.

"Of course I do. I'm from your future." She turned back to him and sighed. "Do be careful, dear." She smiled sadly. "I'm sure I'll be seeing you soon." The Doctor smiled and nodded and then River was gone.

_POP!_

Amy and Rose rushed over. "Where'd she go?" Amy asked.

"Back to Stormcage." Rose's eyebrows shot up at that. "Now, let's get this door open and reunite you with your hubby, yeah Pond?" The Doctor smiled at Amy and threw his sonic into the air. It flipped end over end and when he caught it, he soniced the door.

The door to the cell slid open. Amy gasped happily and rushed into her husbands waiting arms. She checked him over for wounds, but Rose had been right, he was fine. "I thought you were dead you stupid face." She smacked his arm and hugged him again.

"I'm fine Amy." He calmly assured her as he hugged her tightly.

"Hey, I'm fine too. Where's my hug from a beautiful lady?" Rory turned to glare at his cellmate but was stopped by the bright pink and yellow body that flew into the man's arms. "Rose?" Jack laughed and pulled Rose in for a kiss. Rory frowned, how did they know each other? Jack pulled back and looked up at the door. He frowned at the Doctor. "You regenerated." Jack took Rose's hand and walked towards the man. The Doctor wrung his hands nervously, his eyes going from Jack's face, to Rose's to their hands. He didn't look happy. "That's what all that was at the spacebar? Alonso?" The Doctor nodded once.

Then tension in the room was palpable. Rose was smiling though, which gave Rory a little comfort. Jack dropped Rose's hand and broke into a wide grin. The Time Lord and fixed point embraced and before the Doctor could pull away, Jack was kissing him. Rory chocked.

The Doctor wiped his mouth. "Yes, well, thanks for that, Harkness."

Jack winked. "Anytime."

Amy coughed. "Sorry to interrupt this heart breaking reunion, really I am. But Doctor, we need to find who took the apple still."

The Doctor eyed Jack, as if he thought the other man would grab him for another kiss any second, which was entirely possible. Then he clapped his hands and rubbed them together, something Rose was quickly realising was a habit of his. "Right! Well, we found the apple in Max's office. He wasn't acting affected by the apple, not nearly as much as he should have been at least."

"Yeah," Rory cut in, "and why weren't we affected?"

Amy turned to her husband. "The Doctor was saying the apple feeds on desire for love. We love each other, so it had nothing to draw from."

"Had?"

"I destroyed it." She nodded and shrugged like it was no big deal.

"Right." Rory turned to the Doctor. "What about the rest of you?"

Jack and Rose looked to the Doctor. The Doctor's eyes widened. "I'm a Time Lord." Amy smirked as she noted that he didn't stutter that time, though he most certainly glanced at Rose. Jack smirked too, noticing the look. "And Rose isn't human." Amy and Jack's ears perked up at that. "And Jack is a fixed point. But this is off topic. We should head back to Max's office and find out where he went."

The group exited the cell and Rose looked at the schematics of the museum on her vortex manipulator. Jack flipped open his and pulled up the same plans.

"Jack?" The Doctor asked as he spun around to the man. "What are you doing here?"

The time traveller smiled lopsidedly. "Well, I heard they were rebuilding the Boeshane Peninsula and what can I say? I got nostalgic." The Doctor didn't respond. He understood what Jack meant. If he had the opportunity to see Gallifrey again, he didn't think anything would stop him from taking it. "So…apple?"

The Doctor caught Jack up as Rose readied the device on her wrist. She took Jack's arm as the boys talked and soniced it so that it would work properly. "'Kay," Rose interrupted when their conversation quickly deteriorated into bickering. The Ponds watched on in amusement. They'd never seen someone so quickly push the Doctor's buttons, nor with such ease, "we're all set to head back up to the main level."

Jack winked at the Ponds. "I'll take the handsome couple."

_POP!_

The Doctor glanced at Rose. She gave him a stern look back. "Oi. Wipe that look off your face Time Lord. I'm not the one that kidnapped him and brought him here."

The Doctor crossed his arms and pouted. "No. But you're the one that's going to invite him along anyways."

She took his hand. "As if that was even up for debate."

_POP!_

Rose and the Doctor teleported into Max's office to find the man frantically rushing towards the door. Rose jumped forward and slammed it shut. Jack and Rory grabbed his arm and pulled him back.

"Whoa there cowboy." Jack said. He looked to Rose curiously. "This the one that kidnapped me?" Rose shook her head.

"Max." The Doctor walked towards his friend, calm and concerned. "What have you done?"

Max's eyes darted about the room and he licked his lips. "I – I'm sorry, Doctor."

"Maximus…"

"I just wanted her back!" The smaller man shouted. His eyes watered and he looked desperately to Rose. "Just like you wanted Rose back." The tears rolled down his cheeks and Jack and Rory slowly let go of his arms.

"Who Max? Who did you want back?" Even as he asked, the Doctor could guess.

Max sniffled and wiped his nose along his sleeve. "My wife…" He chocked out.

Rose walked toward the man and wrapped an arm around him. "I didn't know you were married." She whispered.

Max wrapped his arms around himself but didn't pull away from her touch. "She died a bit before I first met you and the Doctor." He looked imploringly at the Time Lord. "I thought it'd bring her back."

Amy walked towards the group and stood by her husband. "So when the apple exhibit finally came back to the museum. You used it."

The Doctor shook his head. "The apple doesn't have any history about bringing people back to life."

"But it's from the gods!" He argued with a loud desperation. He didn't mean to hurt anyone, just stop the hurting himself. There was so much darkness. The gods had to help him, he couldn't have failed. It had worked.

Jack's hand went to his gun as he calmly eyed the man. He kept an eye on the Doctor, awaiting any orders to move. Rose continued to try and sooth the frantic man. "It's not magic Max. It's technology, yeah? Someone made it and it got thrown back into ancient times."

"But it worked." He insisted in a whisper. He turned to Rose. "You came back. What else could have done that?"

The Doctor narrowed his eyes. "Your apple has nothing to do with Rose Tyler. She found her way home because she is brilliant. She doesn't need _magic_. Max you've endangered people. I know you're in pain, I know you're grieving. Believe me, I've been there. I am so old. And I have lost so many. But that doesn't excuse your actions." He tightened his fist, angry. Not with Ma, but very possibly with himself. "Nothing could ever excuse the things you've done. You could have killed people; you could have destroyed this civilization and hundreds of others." Rose very slowly stepped away from Max and took the Doctor's hand. She watched him intently as he breathed in deep breaths. She knew; she knew he wasn't talking about Max anymore.

Max didn't. "What are you going to do with me?"

Silence.

The Doctor stared at the small man. He tightened his grip on Rose's hand as he took strength from her presence. It had been so long, years probably, since he'd been able to do that. The Doctor focused on Max, the man had endangered possibly millions of people. He couldn't just let him roam about, but he couldn't really throw him in jail.

"We're going to get you help." All eyes turned to Rory. "It hurts when the one you love is gone. You wish you could do anything to save them. Even if that means living for centuries, waiting for her to come back. But sometimes they don't, and you have to learn to cope with that idea. It's hard, it isn't fun and I can't guarantee it'll be easy. But I can assure you, that it is easier if you have someone." Rory turned to the Doctor who was smiling proudly. Amy took her husbands hand. "We will get him help, right Doctor?"

The Doctor stroked his thumb across Rose's hand. "On my hearts."

* * *

Rose stood at the door to the library. She leaned her shoulder against the frame as she watched Jack snoring soundly on one of the couches in front of the fireplace. The Doctor came up behind her.

"I just wanted to make sure he settled in." She whispered to him. "And got a good nights rest. He's been sleeping badly." The Doctor wrapped his arms around Rose's waist and rested his chin on her shoulder. Rose didn't expect the oddly intimate action, but she didn't pull away. Her body moulded into his and yes, she realised, they would always fit.

"Are you looking into his life? He might not like that."

Rose rolled her eyes. Jack wouldn't care. The Doctor simply wanted her to use Bad Wolf less than she was. "Not really, bit more common sense than that. The TARDIS was home to Jack, and when the TARDIS feels like home, you can't fall asleep without that humming noise. He hasn't had a good night sleep since before Bad Wolf. I don't think I had a single good sleep in the other universe. When you stayed with us, after Bad Wolf Bay the second time, we sort of became insomniacs."

The Doctor frowned. He straightened up and turned Rose in his arms so they faced each other. Rose rested her hands against his hearts and looked into his light green eyes. She liked them, she had decided. His floppy hair and wide features were different then the last body. She definitely wasn't opposed to it. "You don't really talk much about your life with me then. Or your life there in general."

Rose raised her eyebrows. "You don't really ask much." They ginned at each other. Jack's snoring increased and Rose smiled over her shoulder at him. She looked back at the Doctor. "You think Max'll be okay?"

"I should think so. Rory has some brilliant advice when it comes to dealing with a loved ones… yeah, probably not a good thing." Rose frowned, remembering his speech about being forgiven, just before Rory spoke. Rose reached up and cupped the Doctor's face. She searched his eyes, searched for something the Doctor wasn't sure she'd find. Rose didn't speak. She knew whatever she said would do nothing. The Doctor believed he was the fault in everything. Telling him he wasn't would do nothing. She'd have to show him, and over time, he'd learn to see. Rose smiled at him.

She slid her hands down from his face and rested them against his beating hearts. "Doctor?" Rose bit her lip. "'Bout Rory and Amy. What are we going to do about them?"

The Doctor looked up from the ground where his eyes had wandered. He quickly realised what Rose meant and frowned. "I've got a lead I think. But we should drop them off somewhere first. You and Jack can tag along with me and figure it out." Rose nodded.

"I should get in an hour or so then." Her eyes glowed. "I have a feeling this isn't going to be a short trip." She wrapped her arms around the Doctor's neck and held him tightly. "I don't think it was the apple, Doctor." She whispered. "I think it was something stronger."

Long after Rose had walked away, the Doctor was still standing there, staring at where she had disappeared. "Fate." He whispered to himself.

* * *

And that's all she wrote.. I don't really like this part as much as the first, but I do hope it was somewhat satisfactory. It's hard to write original adventures for Doctor Who. COMING SOON: The Rebel Flesh, with JACK and ROSE. Can we all just appreciate that for a moment?

Also side not about River. I love her and Eleven. But because of the obvious Rose/Eleven of this story I had to do something with her. I didn't want to make her mean to Rose, or hate the Doctor, but I also didn't want to discount everything she'd had with the Doctor before Rose came back. I hope you're okay with what I've done. There's still clearly a bit of mystery to that story line and some questions that have to be answered. And we'll get there, soon hopefully!

Thanks for reading :)

PS. There is another part I might write another original adventure, before Let's Kill Hitler. If you guys thinks I should, then let me know. I'll try to make it less, blah in the second half. That, or I could play around with a Classic Who episode? Something I'll probably do anyway at some point. Let me know!


	5. The Rebel Flesh

The Rebel Flesh

Rose crossed her arms and cocked her hip at the Doctor. "I still think we should say something."

The Doctor shook his head and rested his hands lightly on Rose's shoulders. "I told you Rose, if we do, who knows who might hear?"

"You might be wrong."

"I might be right."

Rose pouted and the Doctor quickly spun around and played with the TARDIS scanner. He knew the power of that pout and he would not submit. The Doctor looked over to the Ponds and Jack. Glenn Miller played from around the TARDIS as Jack taught both the Ponds how to dance a dance from the 51 Century. Amy laughed as Jack took Rory in his arms and spun him around. The Doctor looked back to Rose.

"Whatever we do, Doctor, we have to do it soon." The two of them turned their attention to the scanner. The program running on it flipped back and forth between pregnant and not. Their faces creased in concern.

Rory smiled at Jack as the man twirled him around and dipped him over his arm. "I think I'm getting the hang of it." Jack pulled him back up. "Maybe I can try being the male now?"

Jack raised an eyebrow. "Handsome, this is a dance from the 51 Century. It's unisex. Technically, you are the male." Amy burst into laughter at the confused look on Rory's face. Jack stepped back from the blonde and turned to Amy. He held out a hand and grinned salaciously. "Your turn Red."

"Who wants fish and chips?" The Doctor called from the rotor. Rose leaned over the console and turned the music off. Rory raised his hand and turned to the Doctor.

"I'll drop you both off." The Doctor stated quickly. He turned to the console and began pushing buttons. "Take your time." He called over his shoulder. "Don't rush."

Rory looked at Rose and Jack, he frowned. "Er, and you three?"

"Things to do." Rose replied. She and the Doctor shared a look.

"Things involving other things." The Doctor finished. Jack opened his mouth but one sharp look from the Doctor cut him off. They'd talked about this, Jack knew what was happening.

Amy crossed her arms defiantly. "Well, we'll stay with you. We'll do the other things."

Rose sighed. "Amy, please."

The three other companions ran up the steps to the console. Amy didn't budge on her decision. "Whatever you're up to, I'd personally like to be a part of it." Rory frowned. He really wanted those chips.

An alarm blared. Mauve lights flashed and the TARDIS shook violently. The five time travellers collapsed as the ground beneath them tipped and shuddered. The Doctor popped back up as the TARDIS continued to shake.

"Solar tsunami." He informed them. "Came directly from your sun. A tidal wave of radiation. Big, big, big." He grabbed hold of the side of the console as it tipped sideways again. Rose fell towards him and he grabbed her with one hand before her face planted into the glass floor. She clung to him as the TARDIS tipped the other way. "Well, the gyrator disconnected. Target tracking is out."

"We're heading for earth!" Rose shouted to the other companions.

"Assume the position!" Rory and Amy ducked to the ground and covered their head with their hands. Rose and Jack looked at one another perplexed. The TARDIS shook violently for a moment longer then everything went still.

The Doctor smiled arrogantly. "Textbook landing." He winked at Rose then dashed around the console towards the door. His companions slowly gathered themselves together from the obviously anything but, textbook landing.

Jack glared at him as he passed. "Wait a minute there Time Lord!" Amy and Rory popped up from the ground and followed Rose and Jack towards the door. "Why didn't we ever get safety positions when we travelled with you?"

The Doctor paused at the door and looked at Jack like he'd never heard a more stupid question. "Because you and Rose aren't nearly as delicate…" At Amy's glare, the Doctor abruptly stopped. He coughed and smiled. Amy continued to glare. "Anyways…" He turned and exited the TARDIS.

"Stupid Time Lord." Amy grumbled. Jack, Rory and Rose followed her out of the TARDIS, amused smiles on their faces.

"Behold, a cockerel!" The Doctor declared happily as he stared up at the weathervane on top of an old stone building. "Love a cockerel." He hopped out of the TARDIS and analysed the stonework of the structure. Amy and the others exited the TARDIS. "And underneath, a monastery. Thirteenth century."

Amy raised her eyebrows. "Oh, we've gone all mediaeval." She crossed her arms and gave the Doctor a look. The alien easily avoided it and turned to inspect the ground.

Rory glanced around. "I'm not sure about that. I can hear Dusty Springfield." Amy stepped closer to her husband and tried to hear the tune. Standing behind them, Jack picked it up instantly and began whistling to You Don't Have To Say You Love Me. They glanced behind themselves and smiled at the Captain.

Rose hopped up to the Doctor where he was examining a large crack in the ground. Running between the opening was a pipe. "Danger," she read over his shoulder, "Corrosive."

"Yes," The Doctor replied as he inspected the dirt and the pattern of the break. "These fissures are new. Solar tsunami sent out a huge wave of gamma particles."

Jack nodded. "Like a magnetic quake that occurs just before the wave hits." Amy raised her eyebrows and looked over her shoulder at the Captain. She sometimes forgot he was from a completely different century and solar system.

The Doctor spun around. He snapped his fingers and pointed them at Jack like guns. "Exactly like that, Harkness."

Amy nodded at the monastery. "Well, the monastery's standing."

The Doctor pulled out a snow globe from his pocket. He held it up and shook it. Rose rolled her eyes and took it, she put it into her own pocket. "Focus." He glared at her and she raised her eyebrows back challengingly.

"Doctor?" Rory asked.

"Yeah, for now." He finally answered Amy's earlier statement. He continued to glare at Rose.

"No, Doctor, look." Rory pointed to the giant hole in the ground he and Rose had been examining.

He nodded and used the sonic on the pipe. "Yeah. It's a supply pipe. Ceramic inner lining. Something corrosive. They're pumping something nasty off this island to the mainland."

Rory looked towards a set of stairs that led into the monastery. "My mum's a massive fan of Dusty Springfield."

Rose smiled and headed towards the steps. "Who isn't? He was brilliant, wasn't he Doctor?"

The Doctor sniffed. "Bit too friendly for my tastes." He followed after Rose.

Jack grinned and called out to him. "Everyone's a bit friendly for your tastes Doctor." He turned to the Ponds. "Unless you're Rose."

The group headed across a bridge and up the steps of the building. Amy glanced around as the music increased. "So where are these Dusty Springfield loving monks, then?"

The Doctor soniced the area and looked at the readings. "I think we're here. This is it." Rose nodded at the Doctor and assessed the area.

Rory glanced around. "Doctor, what are you talking about? We've never been here before." Jack and Rose shared a look.

Rose took the Doctor's hand, he turned to her. "Hmm?"

Amy narrowed her eyes. "We came here by accident?"

The Doctor spun around and faced he Ponds. "Accident?"

Rose nodded and spoke before he could say more. "Yes, of course it was an accident. Jack?"

The man shrugged behind the Ponds. "What else would it be?" Amy turned and narrowed her eyes at Jack, then looked slowly back to Rose. She smiled brightly as the Doctor looked anywhere but at Amy.

"Ow!" Rory cried out as he shook his hand. A sizzling noise filled the silence as Rose rushed down the stairs to Rory. She glanced at the pool of fluid he had touched and calmly took his hand. Jack glanced over the side of the bridge and checked for any more.

"Acid." The Doctor explained. "They're pumping acid off this island. That's old stuff. Fresh acid, you wouldn't have a finger." Rose glared at the Doctor over her shoulder as he left through the archway. Jack ran up the steps past the trio and followed the Doctor into the building.

Rose turned her attention to Rory's hand and her eyes glowed gold. The pain disappeared from Rory's hand, as well as any sign of injury. Amy looked on in concern. Rose nodded. "Right, let's go then. Jack'll only get the Doctor into _more_ trouble, not out of it." She turned and headed up the steps.

Amy turned Rory's hand over in her own. "Did she mention she could do that when you two talked?" Rory shook his head. They shared a quick look then headed after the others, hand in hand.

Bells rang as an electronic voice hollered from all around them. "INTRUDER ALERT. INTRUDER ALERT."

The Doctor stopped and turned back to the Ponds. He pointed his sonic at them. "There are people coming. Well, almost."

Amy shook her head. "Almost coming?"

"Almost people." They turned down the hall to where Jack and Rose were.

Rory nodded and looked in the direction of the TARDIS. "I think we should really be going."

"Come on!" Amy ordered.

Rory groaned but hurried after his wife. "I'm telling you. When something runs towards you, it is never for a nice reason."

Jack nodded. "I should really tell you about this one time on Sirius IV –"

The Doctor rolled his eyes. "Time and place, _Captain_." The hallway opened up into a large room. People were lying against machines, harnessed into the mechanics with their eyes closed.

Amy examined one of the machines. "What are all these harnesses for?"

Rose pulled out her sonic and scanned one of the machines. Rory looked to her. She bit her lip and said nothing. "The almost people?" He asked. Rose looked to Jack.

Amy frowned at the two newest companions. "What are they, prisoners, or are they meditating, or what?"

Rose shook her head. "They aren't sleepin' and they aren't meditating either."

Rory looked around at the people all hooked up to some unknown machine. Not sleeping, and not meditating so that just left… "Or what."

The alarms stopped and a voice called out to the group. "Halt and remain calm."

"Well, we've halted." The Doctor replied happily. "How are we all doing on the calm front?" Jack stared at the main entrance, hand on his gun. Rose grabbed his wrist and shook her head, her eyes glowed briefly and Jack quickly covered the weapon with his jacket.

A man ran in holding a spear looking object, another followed him holding the same. "Don't move!" The first cried.

The second one glared at them. "Stay back, Jen." He told the brunette woman who followed in after the two men, all of them wearing orange jumpsuits. "We don't know who they are."

Jen crossed her arms, unafraid. She looked at the group and shrugged. "So let's ask them. Who the hell are you?"

Amy looked around the room to all the people in harnesses. She looked back to the people in front of her. Rose watched as she did, she smiled. Amy was quite quick.

"Well, I'm the Doctor, and this is Amy and Rory and Rose and Jack, and it's all very nice, isn't it?" The Doctor smiled brightly and took Rose's hand. He nodded once at them. "And _you_ are?"

"Hold up." Amy said. "You're all. What are you all? Like identical twins?" Rory looked around at the harnessed people. Jack, Rose and the Doctor all continued to watch the people with spears. Rose's eyes glowed faintly and she turned her attention to a second stairwell.

Two more people walked down the stairs. A woman and a man, both wore shelled brown space suits of some kind. The woman stepped forward with a stern face. "This is an Alpha Grade industrial facility. Unless you work for the military or for Morpeth Jetson, you are in big trouble."

The Doctor padded his pockets. "Actually, you're in big trouble." He continued to pat his pockets. Rose rolled her eyes and pulled out the psychic paper from his breast pocket and showed it to the woman in charge. Amy raised an eyebrow at their antics, beginning to think the Doctor knew exactly where the psychic paper was at all times.

The woman read the paper and eyed Rose. "Meteorological Department? Since when?"

The Doctor opened his mouth, but the woman wasn't looking to him anymore. "Since when?" Rose replied. "You got hit by a solar flare."

The woman looked down her nose at Rose. "Which we survived."

Rose laughed humorously. "Barely. And there'll be another on the way."

"Bigger." The Doctor piped in with a gesture of an explosion with his hands.

"Bigger." Rose relayed to the woman.

She ignored them. "Which we'll also survive. Dicken, scan for bugs." Rose narrowed her eyes at the arrogant woman. She was looking down at the psychic paper, checking for authenticity.

"Backs against the wall. Now." Dicken ordered, the man who had come in with the female leader. The Doctor raised his hands, a bitter smile on his face. The group of them did as they were told and lined up against the wall, back against it.

That didn't stop the Doctor from talking. Rose glanced at the man and wondered if anything could get him to stop talking. "You're not a monastery, you're a factory. Twenty second century army-owned factory."

Amy glanced at their outfits. "You're army?"

The woman looked to Amy. "No, love. We're contractors, and you're trespassers."

"It's clear, boss." Dickens declared and pulled his scanner away. Jack looked down and over at Rose. He was armed, that should have come up. Rose winked.

"All right, weatherman, your ID checks out." She tossed Rose the paper who handed it to the sullen looking Doctor. "I'm Miranda Cleaves and this is my team, Jimmy Wicks," she gestured to an older orange jumpsuit wearing man with white hair, "Buzzer Edwards," a younger man with unruly brown hair, Jennifer Lucas, and Dicken." Cleaves crossed her arms and stared sternly at the newcomers. "If there's another solar storm, what are you going to do about it? Hand out sunblock?"

Rose's lips pursed into a tight line. The adventure had barley begun and she was already completely done with the insufferable woman. She took a deep breath and emulated her best Rose Tyler Torchwood Agent voice and stance. "We need to see your critical systems."

"Which one?"

The Doctor stepped towards the leader. "You know which one." Cleaves let out a breath of defeat and led them out of the room.

Rose smiled. "Works every time."

The group was led to a separate chamber. Inside was a large bowl of bubbling white goop, connected to a futuristic looking tub. The Doctor walked around to the vat of liquid and leaned over it. "And there you are." He whispered.

"Doctor, what's that noise?" The Doctor glanced at Rose. She was rubbing her temple. Jack went and comforted her, his own questioning eyes on the vat of liquid.

Cleaves stepped towards the vat. She straightened her back and spoke to the group. "Meet the government's worst kept secret. The Flesh. It's fully programmable matter. In fact, it's even learning to replicate itself at the cellular level."

Jack frowned and stepped towards it at the same time as Rose did. "You mean its psychic?" The Doctor watched Rose ghost her fingers along the edge of the vat. Both Harkness and she were completely captivated. They could hear it, he summarised.

Cleaves rolled her eyes. "It's not psychic. It's science. Once a reading's been taken, we can manipulate its molecular structure into anything. Replicate a living organism down to the hairs on its chinny chin chin. Even clothes. And everything's identical. Eyes, voice."

Jack glared at her. "And you honestly think all of that is science? Where did you find this? Did you make it? Because if you didn't then you don't know what it's capable of."

"Don't be fooled." The leader patronised with a cross of her arms. "It acts like life but it still needs to be controlled by us, from those harnesses you saw."

Rory's eyes widened. "Wait, whoa." He whipped his head to the other contractors and then to Cleaves. "Hold it. So, you're Flesh now?"

"I'm lying in a harness back in that chamber. We all are, except Jennifer here." The woman pointed to the young brunette. Jennifer smiled. "Don't be scared. This thing, just like operating a forklift truck."

The Doctor joined his fingers together and leaned against the vat. He tapped his mouth against his hands. "You said it could grow. Only living things grow." He was in full agreement with Jack. Rose was standing beside the Doctor now, she watched him with questions evidently on her lips. He glanced at her and back at Cleaves.

Cleaves looked over her shoulder at him. She had made her way to Rory and Amy and looked back, a look of contempt on her face. "Moss grows. It's no more than that. This acid is so dangerous we were losing a worker every week. So now we mine the acid using these doppelgangers. Or Gangers. If these bodies get burnt or fall in the acid."

"Then who the hell cares, right, Jen?" Dicken put in. He turned to the young brunette.

Jennifer shrugged. "Nerve endings automatically cut off like airbags being discharged. We wake up and get a new Ganger."

Jimmy nodded. "It's weird, but you get used to it." He nodded pleasantly at the newcomers.

Cleaves turned to Jen. "Jennifer, I want you in your Ganger. Get back to the harness." She ordered. Jennifer nodded and left quickly.

Rose and the Doctor shared a look and smiled. They both flicked out their sonic screwdrivers and scanned the Flesh. The Flesh bubbled. Rose frowned as the sonic refused to move. Their arms shook.

"Hang on," Buzzer stepped forward but Rory quickly moved in the way as Jack ran to the Doctor and Rose, "what they up to? What you up to, eh?"

"Stop it." The Doctor pleaded. Rose gasped out in pain. Jack reached the two just as they were released from whatever had hold of them before. The Doctor rubbed his shoulder while Rose flexed her wrist. Jack grabbed Rose's face and searched her eyes, looked at her hands. She seemed fine. "Strange." The Doctor gasped. "It was like for a moment there it was scanning _us_."

"Looking into our souls…" Rose whispered. She turned away from Jack and looked at the vat of Flesh. Voices, so many whispering voices, all talked at once. The Doctor reached a hand out over the bubbling Flesh.

Cleaves eyed him as he did. "Doctor." She warned. The Doctor quickly dropped his hand onto the Flesh as it moved and jolted in its tub. "Get back, Doctor. Leave it alone."

"Doctor!" Rose called out, but the Time Lord heard nothing. Rose moved forward and grasped the Doctor's hand, sitting over the Flesh, in her own. She gasped as the voices bombarded her mind, no longer whispers but a yelling, screaming mess. All the voices of lost Gangers called out to Rose and the Doctor, seeking understanding.

Rose's eyes lit up. The room filled with a bright golden glow. Rose screamed. All at once her mind was invaded by the future Ganger's own. Everything they'll see, do see, have seen. The future became past and present. _Don't you dare – See you on the other side – They're all you – We always survive – But he – Amy! – DOCTOR!_ Jack grabbed Rose around the waist and yanked her away from the Flesh. The room darkened as the gold vanished from her eyes. The Doctor dropped down beside Rose and Jack. He scanned her for injuries and looked into her eyes, hazel. He sighed.

"Rose?" He asked tentatively.

"Where's the other? Oh – and…" She gasped and her eyes flashed gold again.

"Doctor?" Cleaves called cautiously from across the room. "What the hell was that?"

The Doctor ignored her. He touched Rose's face lightly to draw her attention. "It's alright, just breathe, Rose."

Amy bent down beside Jack. "Doctor is she alright?" Rose was looking at her fingers and smiling absentmindedly. She giggled.

"Uhm. Yes. Sort of. Bad Wolf activated, it wasn't her fault. Sort of happened, but Rose's alright. She just has to reassert her psyche into our proper timeline." The Doctor looked up at Amy, who had no clue what any of that meant. "She'll be fine." He turned back to Rose who was blinking and shaking her head, already coming back to herself. "Won't you dear?" The Doctor cupped her cheek and took her hand. With Jack's help, they got Rose back on her feet.

Rose took a deep breath and stared at the Flesh. "That's horrible."

The Doctor smiled at the Flesh. "It's incredible."

"It's _disgusting_."

The Doctor turned to Rose. She wasn't happy, whatever she'd seen, she wasn't happy. "You have no idea." He looked back to Cleaves and the others. "No idea. I mean, I felt it in my mind. I reached out to it, and it to me."

Cleaves narrowed her eyes on Rose as she spoke to the Doctor. "Don't fiddle with the money, Doctor." She'd seen that woman, Rose, glow. What the hell had that been?

Rose glared at Cleaves. "It's alive. It isn't some piece of technology you can just throw away. They have feelings and dreams and _thoughts_. They aren't toys. You're puttin' yourselves into it, you're makin' it _feel_."

Lightening flashed outside the windows. The Doctor turned to Rose and pulled out his snow globe. He shook it once before she took it back. They glared at each other. "It's the solar storm." The Doctor informed the others. "The first waves come in pairs. Pre-shock and fore-shock. It's close." The Doctor took Rose's hand and headed towards the door.

Cleaves paid little attention to the Doctor and his friends. "Buzzer, we got anything from the mainland yet?"

"No, the comms are still too jammed with radiation."

Cleaves nodded. "Okay. Then we'll keep pumping acid until the mainland says stop." She glanced at the Doctor. "Now why don't you stand back and let us impress you?"

The tub connected to the vat of Flesh slowly filed with milky fluid. Moments later the fluid drained and a face appeared. The group of people stood around the tub and watched as the liquid slowly revealed Jenny. Her orange jumpsuit and hair was all the same. Her skin and face, however, were different. The colour was paler, with red veins easily visible. The nose was flatter, less defined. The eyes were the most different. There was redness around them, no eyebrows and the pupils were all that could be seen. Her irises were white.

Jennifer gasped and sat up, her skin tanned again, eyes coloured, nose full. Her hands grasped the edge of the tub. She looked to the Doctor.

He nodded once. "Well, I can see why you keep it in a church. Miracle of life."

Buzzer scoffed beside him. "No need to get poncey. It's just gunge." Rose snorted.

Lightening flashed again and something sounded in the distance, like softened thunder. Jack looked around at the contractors. "It isn't safe to work. We need to leave, now."

Jimmy glanced at the man, dressed in a WWII uniform. "Where do you want us to go? We're on a tiny island."

Rose nodded at the others. "We've got a ship, we can take you with us. Everyone would be safe."

Cleaves rolled her eyes. "Don't be ridiculous. We've got a job to do." She walked towards a computer by the tub. The Doctor held up the snow globe again. "It's coming." Rose patted her pockets and frowned at the Doctor. He winked back. A ringing sounded from around them.

Jennifer looked up and over at the others. "That's the alarm."

"How do you get power?"

Cleaves typed away on the computer, completely uncaring for the storm upon them. "We're solar. We use a solar router. The weathervane."

Rose groaned. "Of course you do."

Jack shook his head. The Doctor glanced at Rose and back to Cleaves. He pulled the leader aside from her team. Rose followed. "Please, you are making a massive mistake here. You're right at the crossroads of it. Don't turn the wrong way. If you don't, if you don't prepare for this storm, you are all in terrible danger. Understand?"

Cleaves pursed her lips at the Doctor. "My factory, my rules."

Rose rolled her eyes. "What are you, three?" Cleaves ignored her as she walked away.

The Doctor's searched the room as he thought aloud. "I need to check the progress of the storm. Monitoring station?" He smiled and turned to the contractors. "Monitoring station."

Jen nodded. "Three lefts, a right and a left. Third door on your left."

"Thank you." The Doctor grabbed Rose's hand and ran out of the room. The Ponds and Jack followed.

* * *

The monitoring station and the rest of the building shook as the group of five time travellers ran into the circular room. A circular console was set up in the centre of the room with numerous screens and button attached. The thunder sounded again, louder and closer.

The Doctor ran around the console and pushed buttons as he yelled to his companions. "Waves disturbing the Earth's magnetic field. There is going to be the mother and father of all power surges. See this weathervane, the cock-a-doodle-do?"

Jack nodded and stood beside the Doctor at the console. "It's a solar router feeding the whole factory with solar power."

The Doctor smiled and laughed. "Yes! And when that wave hits?"

Rose hopped up to the Doctor's other side. "Ka-boom." She gestured with her hands the way the Doctor had earlier. An explosion.

The Doctor nodded seriously and rushed to the door. "I've to get to that cockerel before all hell breaks loose." He stopped and turned to his companions, a smile in place. "I never thought I'd have to say that again."

Rose rolled her eyes and pushed him own the hall. "Go!" She turned and pointed at Jack. "You, stay." She pointed to Amy. "You, breathe. And Rory? Stay wonderful." The Doctor appeared and dragged her out of the doorway. The two ran towards the cockerel.

"Yeah!" Amy called after them. "I mean, thanks. I'll try." She glanced at Rory who shrugged. Jack looked away.

The Doctor and Rose raced up a spiral stairway until they came across an exit. The door flew open and they paused at the image that lay before them. The sky was a molten red, with golden wisps streaking across it. Wind rushed across the earth as thunder stormed. On top of a tall tower the cockerel spun around. The Doctor tightened his grip on Rose's hand. They ran towards the tower.

There was a ladder leading up to the weathervane, as well as a box labelled 'Danger High Voltage'. The Doctor didn't even hesitate in rushing up the ladder and throwing the door to the box open. Rose waited at the bottom of the ladder, biting her nail. The Doctor pulled out the relays. He shook his hand as sparks flew, but he didn't stop. A lightening bolt struck the tower, and Rose screamed as he lost his footing and flew backwards. The Doctor crashed into his companion and they slammed against the hard stone. Neither woke up.

The storm continued to rage until another lightening bolt slammed against the monastery. The building went black.

* * *

The Doctor snuggled closer to the warmth in his arms. The scent of vanilla and brown sugar invaded his senses and he breathed in deeper. Someone sighed.

Thunder sounded.

The Doctor's eyes blinked open. He looked down at Rose, bundled in his arms. Heat rose to his cheeks and he instantly tried to fight the reaction. "Rose?" He cleared his throat, clogged because of the fall, or sleep, or air. "Rose?" Rose mumbled and snuggled in closer to the Doctor. Her nose wrinkled against his shirt and she sneezed. The Doctor leaned back and raised his eyebrows at her.

"Sorry." Rose sniffled. She frowned up at him. "You got dust on you, I think."

The Doctor glanced around. "We are lying on the ground." Rose glanced around, realised she was practically lying on the Doctor, and smiled up at him cheekily.

"Problem?" Her tongue stuck out between her teeth.

The Doctor gasped. "You _cheeky_ Tyler." Rose laughed and rolled off of him. They got up and looked around. The area was empty, and the storm was still going above them. "Something's wrong." The Doctor mumbled to himself.

Rose crossed her arms and nodded. "Are we talkin' 'bout the missin' time or the extra psyche's walkin' about?"

The Doctor looked sidelong at her. "Both."

They made their way quickly towards the courtyard. Cleaves was standing near the base of the steps. "Cleaves," the Doctor called as they rushed towards her "you're not in your harness."

"I'm sorry, Doctor." She responded softly. "You were right." It was the nicest she'd spoken to them yet.

Rose looked around at the blackened windows of the buildings. "Power's down. Everythin's lost electricity."

"Doctor, I abandoned my team."

The Doctor tapped her chin up a bit. "Then let's go get them." The three headed towards the others. "How long would you say we were unconscious for, Cleaves?" Rose glanced at the Doctor as he asked this. They exited the courtyard and entered the monastery, all the halls were dark.

Cleaves shrugged. "Not long. A minute, two minutes?"

"I'd hazard we've been out a teensy bit longer."

Cleaves stopped walking and turned to the Doctor and Rose. Rose was being deliberately quiet. Cleaves noticed and directed her next question to her. "Well, how long?"

Rose made a face. "An hour. Probably about an hour. And with the damages the islands probably sustained and the acid all around us, I'd say a lot could have happened in that hour."

The Doctor took Rose's hand. "We should go." They ran down the hall and back into the harness room. The Doctor glanced around the room until his eyes found Jack. "Captain, status."

"A little crispy, but everyone's fine." He glanced behind himself at Rory who was comforting Jennifer. "A little emotional trauma, but it's being handled." The Doctor nodded. "No sign of any Gangers though, I don't know where they went." The Doctor and Rose gazed about the room, as if the Ganger's would suddenly appear.

Cleaves looked around at everyone. "Don't worry. When the link shuts down the Gangers return to pure Flesh. Now, the storm's left us with acid leaks all over, so we need to contact the mainland. They can have a rescue shuttle out here in no time." Music echoed through the empty hallways of the monastery.

Jimmy stepped towards the hallway. "That's my record. Who's playing my record?"

The Doctor turned to him. "Your Gangers. They've gone walkabout."

Cleaves shook her head. "No, it's impossible. They're not active. Cars don't fly themselves, cranes don't lift themselves and Gangers don't…" The song changed. Cleaves turned in the direction of the hallway.

Rose smiled and headed towards the source of the noise. No one moved. The Doctor glanced about the room. "Someone better follow her, or else she's going to get hurt. Can dress her up, can completely cover her in bubble wrap, but you can't stop her from finding trouble." Jack laughed and headed towards the door. Slowly, everyone began to follow. The Doctor kept a close eye on each of them as they left.

The dinning hall was empty and the music had stopped playing by the time they all reached it. Clothes were strewn across the floor, bags opened and things searched. The contractors entered first and searched the room.

"No way." Buzzer breathed.

Cleave shook her head. "I don't, I don't believe this." She stopped by the clothes spread across the floor. The Doctor walked past her and sat down at the head of the table behind a house of cards.

Jimmy strode further into the room and pointed to another door. "They could've escaped through the service door at the back."

The Doctor clasped his hands and leaned them on the table. "It would seem the storm has animated your Gangers." He said it as calmly as he could. Jack stood by the door next to Cleaves. He watched each of the contractors carefully for any signs of aggression.

Cleaves kicked at the items on the ground. "They've ransacked everything."

Rose crossed her arms and leaned her hip against the table. "They were jus' seachin'."

"Through our stuff!"

The Doctor nodded once in acknowledgement of the statement. "Their stuff." He countered coolly.

Jimmy picked up some of his pictures from the table. "Searching for what?"

The Doctor looked to him. "Confirmation."

Rose walked towards Jimmy as she explained. "They need to make sure it's all real. All the things they remember, that they _feel_. They need to connect with their lives."

Cleaves narrowed her eyes. "The lives they stole."

The Doctor shook his head. "No, bequeathed. You gave them this. You poured in your personalities, emotions, traits, memories, secrets, everything. You gave them your lives. Human lives are amazing. Are you surprised they walked off with them?"

Jimmy looked to his boss. "Even if this has actually happened, they can't remain stable without us plumbed in to them, can they, boss?" Cleaves didn't answer.

Jennifer gasped and grasped her stomach. Rory went to her, full nurse mode. "Are you okay? Do you need some water?"

Jen shook her head. "I feel funny. I need the washroom."

Rory nodded. "I'll come with you." Rory nodded at Amy then followed Jennifer into the hallway. The Doctor caught Jack's eye. Jack nodded once and waited a moment, and then he followed the two to the bathroom.

Rory stood by the stairs to the renovated washroom, a torch in hand. "The Doctor's always saying don't wander off. First rule with him, actually. Don't wander off."

Jen stared at herself in the mirror. "I just need a minute."

"Oh, yeah. Sure. Take all the time you need." He turned away, looked back. "I've got your back. You're fine." He turned again.

Jen watched her reflection, watched for any imperfection. Her face flashed. In that moment she saw white irises and white skin with red veins. She gasped and jolted forward as a blob of Flesh fell out of her mouth and into the sink.

Rory frowned at the ceiling, his back still to Jen. "Er, Jennifer? What's up, Jennifer?" Jen turned quickly and ran into a cubicle. Rory turned around as she closed the door. "We… er, we'd better get going." Rory glanced towards the mirror. "Everything okay in there, Jen?" He looked back and a fist slammed across his cheek. Rory fell to the ground, his head slammed against the cabinet.

Jack rushed down the stairs and into the washroom. He saw the elongated arm slowly shrinking back into the cubicle, the shattered mirror, Rory on the ground, and he moved. He grabbed Rory's arm and pulled him up. The two men turned to see Jennifer's head pop out of the window of the cubicle, her neck elongated like her arm had been. Her face was Flesh, pale and veined.

"Just let us live." She hissed.

Jack nodded once. "And on _that_ note." He grabbed Rory's wrist and the two men booked it out of the washroom. They headed down a few hallways before they slowed down a bit. "Right, the others should still be in the dinning hall, this way." They headed outside into the courtyard. Jack turned quickly around a corner and almost walked straight into a pool of acid. Rory grabbed his jacket and pulled him back. Jack whistled. "Thanks. That's one death I sure as hell can skip." He turned to Rory and smiled charmingly. Rory grimaced. Of course the Doctor would send Jack. Who else?

"Rory? Jack?" The men both turned at the sound of Jennifer's voice. Rory tugged Jack's sleeve and they hid behind a set of boxes that the acid barrels used to sit on. "Rory? Jack?" Jennifer walked past the boxes and paused. She waited, but the boys didn't come out. She turned around, her Ganger face still in place. Rory stared at her, his gasp lost somewhere in his throat. Jen left the way she came.

Rory and Jack looked at each other. "Well," Jack said, "this is cozy." Rory rolled his eyes.

* * *

The Doctor leaned forward on the table and stared at the house of cards. Buzzer nodded at it. "That's me. It's good to have a hobby. So what, my Ganger did that all on its own?"

The Doctor looked up at the dark haired man. "Who taught you to do this?"

He shrugged. "My granddad."

"Well, your Ganger's granddad taught him to do it, too. You both have the same childhood memories, just as clear, just as real."

Buzzer glanced at Jimmy. He knocked the house down. "No."

Rose walked around from Jimmy to the Doctor. She leaned on the back of his chair. "It's true. Just because they weren't born the same way, doesn't mean they're wrong or all that different. They don't just think that they're you, they _are_ you. They feel the same for the same people; have the same thoughts, cravings, ideas. It doesn't change because they aren't the same species anymore."

The Doctor smiled and leaned back. "Trust Rose on this. She has some serious experience with this."

Rose flicked his head. "Oh hush you." He leaned his head back and smiled up at her.

Cleaves walked towards the table, away from the door for the first time. "So you've dealt with this sort of thing before?" Jimmy, Buzzer and Dicken all looked to Rose. "You've met the Flesh?"

Amy walked towards the table, always interested in more of the Rose story. Rory had told her that he'd found out about her powers, but it was clear that he had left something out. She hadn't pushed him, if it was relevant to her safety, he would have said. That, however, only made it all the more relevant to her curiosity.

Rose shook her head. "I've never met the Flesh. But my late husband was a biological metacrisis." At everyone's blank stares, Rose explained. "Basically, he was a clone. All the same memories, all the same thoughts and feelin's, yeah? He was just a bit more, alien." Rose said the last part with a smile. The Doctor stifled a snort.

Amy's brows drew together. "And you married him? He was a clone of someone you knew? What about the original? What happened to the both of them?" Amy winced. Late husband. When they'd first met, she'd set _late_ husband. He was dead.

Rose grasped the top of the chair and leaned back. "I don't consider his _original_ , as you put it, to be the original. They're the same man. Always have been in my mind. He didn't pick a new name, he didn't try to be anythin' else then what he was. What he'd always been." Rose leaned over the back end of the chair and hugged the Doctor. He smiled and raised his hands to her arms. "I'm not sayin' it was easy. Him and I, we fought quite a bit at first. But tha's only natural."

Cleaves shook her head. "And the man who he'd come from? He was fine with all of this? I don't believe it."

The Doctor stood up. "I'll have you know, I was perfectly fine with it."

Amy's jaw dropped.

Rose smirked at the Doctor and glanced at Amy. Oh, he was so fielding those questions. She would have nothing to do with it. The Doctor didn't seem to notice the red head's confusion. He went over to the microwave and popped in a meal.

Jimmy looked around at the people in the room. "We need to protect ourselves." They'd gotten off topic. They had to get focused, and prepared.

The Doctor turned to the man. "Are you a violent man, Jimmy?"

Jimmy paused and frowned at himself. "No."

"Then why would the other Jimmy be?" The microwave hummed as it heated the food.

Cleaves walked over to the Doctor. "Don't tell me you can eat at a time like this, Doctor."

The Doctor leaned an elbow on the microwave. "You told me we were out cold for a few minutes, Cleaves, when in fact it was an hour."

She shrugged. "Sorry, I just assumed."

"Well, it's not your fault. Like I said, they're disoriented. Amy, when you got to the alcoves, who was in harness?"

Amy shook her head, still confused from the Doctor's earlier admission. "Jimmy and Dicken were helping Buzzer out."

Rose walked to the Doctor's side. Amy tracked the movement like a hound dog. "What about Jennifer?" Rose asked.

Amy shook her head again. "She was standing on her own when we got to her."

The microwave dinged. Cleaves shook her head at the Doctor and walked away. Rose tossed the Doctor a towel which he used to pull the plate out. He trained his face against the heat and handed it to Cleaves. Rose and the Doctor watched her. "It's hot." The Doctor informed Cleaves.

The plate shattered against the floor.

Cleaves looked up at Rose and the Doctor.

The Doctor stepped towards Cleaves and took her hand. "Trans-matter's still a little rubbery. Nerve endings not quite fused properly."

"What are you talking about?" Cleaves voice shook.

Rose stepped up to them. "It's okay Miranda."

She ignored Rose. "Why didn't I feel that?" Nothing was okay.

The Doctor looked right into Cleaves eyes. "You will. You'll stabilize. Please, trust me. I'm the Doctor."

Cleaves pulled away and turned her back on them. When she turned back, her Ganger face was in place of her own. Buzzer grabbed a knife off the table, but Jimmy held him back. "Where's the real Cleaves, you thing? What have you done with her?"

The Doctor ignored the men behind him. Rose turned and made sure they didn't attack. "That's it. Good, you remember. This is early Flesh. The early stages of the technology." The Doctor reached forward with his hand. "So much to learn." Rose glanced behind herself and flicked the Doctor's elbow. He pulled his hand away. "Sorry."

Amy kept her eyes on the Ganger Cleaves. "Doctor, what's happened to her?"

"She can't stabilize." He explained. "She's shifting between half-formed and full-formed, for now at least."

"We are _living_." She hissed at them and Rose pulled the Doctor out of the way. The woman ran from the room.

"Just leave her." The Doctor told the others. Rose snorted into her hand.

Amy turned to the Time Lord. "Doctor, Rory."

"Rory?"

"Rory!"

Understanding dawned on him. "Oh, Rory. He's with Jack!" Really Pond, he thought, Rory'll be fine.

"_Doctor_!" Rose smiled at Amy and took the Doctor's hand. They headed out after the Doctor.

The path to the washroom had been obstructed by acid. Jimmy had instead led them around a different way. Amy raced down the steps to the washroom after the others. "Rory." She gasped.

Rose scanned the hole in the cubicle with her sonic. "Jen's a Ganger too." She confirmed.

"Doctor, you said they wouldn't be violent."

The Doctor turned to his companion. "But I did say they were scared and angry."

Jimmy studied the man. "And early technology, is what you said. You seem to know something about the Flesh." He turned to Rose. "You too."

Amy bit her lip. "Do you? Doctor? Rose?" Rose and the Doctor shared a look.

She took the Doctor's hand. "We can fix this." Rose promised. "We should find the others, yeah?"

They headed out of the washroom. "But where's the real Jennifer?" Jimmy called up to them as they went. They made it to the hallways and continued through the maze of a monastery.

A pipe ruptured down the hall.

The Doctor frowned at the air that hissed out of it. "It is too dangerous out here with acid leaks."

Amy shook her head. "We have to find Rory." She didn't like being away from him on dangerous adventures like this. The museum had been bad enough. She just wanted to know Rory was safe.

The Doctor nodded. "Yes. I'm going back to the TARDIS. Wait for me in the dining hall. I want us to keep together, okay. No more wandering off." He turned down the hall and when Rose followed, he stopped. "Dinning hall."

"I'm not waitin'." Rose crossed her arms.

"And what about Rory?" Amy cut in.

The Doctor looked back and forth between the two women. Both of them were angry and defiant, his worst nightmare. "Well, it would be safer to look for Rory and Jennifer with the TARDIS. And Rory is with Jack, so he should he alright. Jack's a few centuries years old after all." He turned to Rose. "Please."Rose raised her eyebrows. The Doctor sighed. "Fine."

Rose smiled brightly. She turned to Jimmy. "Way out?"

Jimmy nodded down the hall. "Keep going straight. Can't miss it." Rose nodded her thanks and disappeared that way. "But you're never going to get your vehicle in here."

"I'm a great parker." The Doctor replied ominously. Rose's uncontrollable laugh could be heard all the way down the hall. "Oi! You!" The Doctor ran after. Amy stared at the two until their shadows disappeared. Married. Now that she knew, everything they did seemed so much more personal. She'd married a version of the Doctor. Both her and the Doctor seemed to consider it him though, so did that make it him?

Jimmy opened up a white panel on the wall. "Ah. Here we go, distress flares. But we're really goin' to need those acid suits. I've sent Buzzer and Dicken to get them."

Amy nodded and cautiously stepped around the smoke hissing from the ruptured pipes. She turned to Jimmy and gave him a thumbs up. "Fine and dandy. I'm just going to find my husband, so cheers."

Jimmy paused, his arms full with a heavy box full of distress flares. "Amy, I wouldn't."

Amy spun around and faced the dark hallway, armed only with a torch. "Nor would I. What can you do, eh?"

"At least wait for an acid suit." He called after her.

* * *

Rory looked around the darkened locker room. It was empty except for Jennifer, sitting on a bench with her back to him and Jack. The Captain tugged at Rory's sleeve, he motioned for them to leave. Rory shook his head and turned back to Jennifer.

"When I was a little girl," she was saying, "I got lost on the moors, wandered off from the picnic. I can still feel how sore my toes got inside my red welly boots. And I imagined another little girl, just like me, in red wellies, and she was Jennifer too. Except she was a strong Jennifer, a tough Jennifer. She'd lead me home. My name is Jennifer Lucas. I am not a factory part. I had toast for my breakfast. I wrote a letter to my mum. And then you arrived. I noticed your eyes right off." She still hadn't turned around. Jack rolled his eyes. Rory was going to get him killed, he just knew it.

"Did you?" Rory asked cautiously as he stepped towards her.

"Nice eyes. Kind." Jen turned around and revealed her Ganger face. Rory forced himself not to step back.

He bent down so he was level with her. "Where is the real Jennifer?"

Jen pouted. "I am Jennifer Lucas. I remember everything that happened in her entire life. Every birthday, every childhood illness. I feel everything she has ever felt and more." She stood up. "I'm not a monster! I am me. Me! Me! Me!" Her face flickered and it was full-made again, not Ganger. Jennifer collapsed back onto the bench, head in her hands. She sobbed. "Why did they do this to us? Help me, Rory. Help me."

Jack sighed. Yup, Rory was going to get him killed.

Rory wrapped his arms around the crying girl and stroked her hair. "Shush, shush."

It was just a matter of when.

A little while later Rory, Jack and the Ganger Jennifer were walking through the monastery. Rory turned to Jen. "Are you sure you're feeling better? No more super-elastic punches?"

He'd meant it as a joke, but Jennifer took it as a serious question. "I'm different now. Stronger."

Rory nodded and continued walking. Jack stayed oddly silent behind them. Rory glanced at him. The Captain had his eyes on Jen, as if he was just waiting for her to break and kill them all. Rory turned to Jen. "The Doctor won't hurt you. He wants to help, Jennifer, okay?"

Jennifer smiled brightly and bounced on the spot. "You used my name. You used my name. Thank you." She rushed forward and kissed Rory on the cheek. Rory's eyes widened. "Amy's a lucky girl." Jen whispered.

Rory coughed and cleared his throat. "Yeah, she is." He smiled and stared off into the distance. At Jack's cough he turned down the hall. "Let's go." He headed down the hallway again, though this time he kept a greater distance between Jennifer and himself. Jack smirked to himself. He was a mini Doctor in training, making all the women fall for him without even trying.

They continued through the halls for some time before they heard some movement ahead. Jack grabbed Rory's arm and pulled him back. Jack moved to the front of her group. He rounded the corner just as Amy slammed a door shut.

"Amy!" The red head spun around and almost sighed with relief. Rory ran around the corner and Amy jumped into his arms.

"You're okay. What happened?"

Jennifer peeked out from around Rory and smiled awkwardly. Amy stepped back.

Rory raised his hand to stop the protesting he knew his wife might have. "She needs protecting." Buzzer and Dicken rounded another corner down the hall.

"Jen?" Buzzer called.

Amy shook her head and stated calmly. "No, it's a Ganger. Rory, listen."

Jack looked back and forth between Amy and the contractors. "Rory."

"No," he said calmly. He pointed at Amy "you listen." He pointed the torch at Buzzer and Dicken and stated loudly. "Nobody touches her."

* * *

The vat of Flesh bubbled in the empty room alone.

The door creaked open and Rose and the Doctor ran inside. The Doctor pulled out his sonic screwdriver as he stood over the flesh. He looked to Rose. "Come on then."

Rose frowned. "I don't think this'll work with the both of us Doctor."

"Sure it will." Rose raised an eyebrow. The Doctor sighed. "Look, it got both our DNA in it when I put my hand on it. If we do this together, it should be able to differentiate. The Flesh is smart, and it's learning." Rose pulled out her sonic screwdriver. "At a girl!"

They pointed their screwdrivers at the Flesh and scanned it at the same time. The Doctor took Rose's hand and they sprinted from the room.

Rose stayed on the stairwell when they reached the outskirts of the monastery. The Doctor rushed over to the sinking TARDIS. All that was left was the top, the rest of it had sunk into the soil.

"Oh. What are you doing down there?" He called to it.

"Takin' a nap." Rose replied from the stairs.

The Doctor spun around. "Oi! Don't get… Oh! Hot!" He looked own at his rapidly dissolving shoes and quickly abandoned them in the acid. He rushed, barefoot, back to Rose. Rose stood on the stairwell, smirking as he hopped from one foot to the other. "Oh, shut it." He took her hand and grumpily led her away.

They continued their search into the acid room. "If I can find one of those suits, maybe I can find a way to the TARDIS." The Doctor said to her as he opened the door.

Rose took the torch and searched the area nearest to her as she walked down the stairs. "Or you could tunnel under."

"Oh! Now that's…" His voice trailed off as the light from the torch fell upon a pair of shoes. Rose directed the light upwards and slowly revealed the Ganger faced Cleaves, Buzzer, Dickens and Jimmy. "Hello." The Doctor greeted pleasantly. "How are you all getting on?"

Cleaves somehow managed to look arrogant even with her Ganger face. "Why don't you tell us?"

The Doctor nodded and clapped his hands. "Well, we have two choices. The first is to tear each other apart. Not my favourite. The second is to knuckle down and work together. Try to work out how best we can help you."

The Gangers looked at each other then back to the Doctor. They nodded hesitantly.

"Wonderful!" Rose beamed at them. "Follow me." The Doctor and Rose led them out of the acid room and back towards the dinning hall. Rose glanced at the Doctor. "This better work." She whispered to him.

He glanced at her but said nothing. When they neared the dinning hall, the Doctor turned to the Gangers. "Now, I know it's hard for you to hold your fully human form. That's why you keep shifting between the Flesh stages, but do try. It'll make the others less scared of you."

Rose nodded. "And the less fear we have, the better."

Voices echoed down from the dinning hall. "I worked with Jennifer Lucas, not you." Buzzer was saying to, presumably, the Ganger Jen.

"Okay," Amy's voice said next, "let's not do anything at all."

The Doctor waltzed into the room and said with Amy. "Until the Doctor gets here." Everyone turned to him and he waved. "Hello." The Ganger's and Rose walked into the room behind the Doctor. He stepped up to the table that Amy and the others were at and set his torch down. The Ganger's and Rose lined up behind him.

"This is…" Jimmy said, looking at his Ganger.

"You're telling me." The Ganger responded.

The Doctor nodded at the Ganger's and their respective non-Gangers. "Before we do anything, I have one very important question. Has anybody got a pair of shoes I could borrow? Size ten. Although I should warn you, I have very wide feet." They looked down at the Doctor's bare feet. He wiggled his toes.

Jimmy nodded a little confused, his eyes on his Ganger. He went over to the pile of clothes that had been searched through and grabbed a pair of brown lace up boots. Rose crossed her arms and smiled as The Doctor hopped on one foot, then the other, trying to put his shoes on. Eventually, she took pity on him and sat him down on the table. He talked while she did up his laces.

"The Flesh was never merely moss." He said. "These are not copies. The storm has hardwired them. They are becoming people."

"With souls?" Jimmy asked as he glanced at his Ganger. Rose stood up and sat beside the Doctor on the table. He took her hand in his and kissed it in thanks. Amy stared at the action, completely absorbed in the way they interacted. She didn't think she'd ever be able to pay attention to what they were saying ever again.

Dicken sneezed.

"Bless you." The Doctor said. "We were all jelly once. Little jelly eggs sitting in goop."

Amy grimaced, well she heard that. "Yeah, thanks. Too much information."

Jack smiled and wrapped an arm around her shoulders. "The creation of life is a beautiful thing, Amelia. Trust me; I participate in that sport, often."

The Doctor glared at the Captain. "We are not talking about an accident that needs to be mopped up." Jack raised a hand to his heart, taking mock offence. "We are talking about sacred life. Do you understand?" They nodded. "Good. Now, the TARDIS is trapped in an acid pool. Once I can reach her, I can get you all off this island, humans and Gangers, eh? How does that sound?"

The Ganger's and non-Gangers looked at each other, doubt written clearly across their faces. Rose smiled sympathetically. "It's not goin' to be easy. Never said it was. It'll be a right mess at first, but it is something you'll be able to get through. My husband and I could do it, so can you." Rory looked to Amy who gave him a glare. Right, so she knew about Rose's husband then. He scratched his neck and looked away.

The Doctor smiled and smacked his knee. "Right, and as you might say up North, oh well, I'll just go to't foot of stairs. Eee by by gum."

Rose raised her eyebrows at him. "You never once said that when you was from the North." The Doctor opened his mouth but stopped at Rory's cough. He and Amy looked more then mildly intrigued. Oh he was not going to tell them about his past regeneration that was for sure. Rose turned to the group of contractors. "First we need to get everyone together, then get everyone safe. Then, get everyone out of here."

Amy looked around. "But we're still missing Jennifer and Cleaves."

The Jimmy's both headed towards the door; they offered to go find them.

Cleaves ran into the room from the back entrance. "This circus has gone on long enough." She held up a weapon of some sort, electricity pulsed through the end of it.

The Ganger Cleaves sighed. "Oh, great. You see, that is just so typically me."

"Doctor, tell it to shut up!"

The Doctor stepped around the table towards the woman. "Cleaves, no. No, no."

Cleaves didn't move, she continued to point her weapon. "Circuit probe." She explained. "Fires about ooo, forty thousand volts? Would kill any one of us, so I guess she'll work on Gangers just the same."

The Doctor's brows furrowed. "It's interesting you refer to them as it, but you call a glorified cattle prod a she."

Rose rolled her eyes beside the Time Lord. "Doctor, focus, yeah?"

"Right, yes. Sorry. What are you going to do, Cleaves?" Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Jack inch towards them from the other side of the table.

"Sorry. They're monsters. Mistakes. They have to be destroyed."

Rose glared at her. "And yet you came with the weapon. They're here out of peace so we could all talk. What did you come for?"

Ganger Buzzer rushed towards Cleaves. Jack ran after him but was too late. Cleaves activated the probe and electrocuted the Ganger. He collapsed to the ground, dead. The Doctor raced towards him and checked his pulse. "Argh!" He stood and turned his darkest glare on Cleaves. "He's dead!"

Cleaves raised a shoulder, uncaring. "We call it decommissioned."

Rose rounded on the insensitive woman. "Is tha' supposed to be funny? Do you really not care? That person had a heart, and it's stopped now. You killed him – no, you murdered him. His blood is on your hands. You are responsible, and he will have justice."

Jen backed up until she was standing with the other Gangers. "What happened to Buzzer will happen to all of us if we trust you."

The Doctor raised his hands in a gesture of peace. "Wait, wait, just wait."

Rose dived at Cleaves and disconnected the probe. She pushed the woman back into Jack, who grabbed her arms and held her in place. The Ganger's ran from the room.

"You idiot!" Amy hollered at the woman. She stormed over and stood by Rose.

The Doctor turned slowly to Cleaves. His eyes were dark as he made his way towards them. Rory followed behind hesitantly. "Look at what you have done, Cleaves."

The woman shrugged out of Jack's grip. She turned up her nose and stuck her chin out. "If it's war, then it's war. You don't get it, Doctor. How can you? It's us and them now." She eyed her men. "Us and them."

They nodded. "Us and them."

* * *

A sheet was put over the Ganger's body. No one spoke of it. Cleaves and the boys wanted a war, but they knew the Doctor and his friends would try anything against it. The Doctor looked up at Cleaves, an idea in his mind. "The most fortified and defendable room in the monastery. Cleaves, the most fortified and defendable room in the monastery."

"The chapel. Only one way in. Stone walls two feet thick."

The Doctor nodded. "You've crossed one hell of a line, Cleaves. You've killed one of them. They're coming back, in a big way." He looked to the others. "Come on." They exited the dinning hall and headed to the chapel.

Amy fell back from her husband and Jack. She glanced at Rose beside her. "So… you were married to the Doctor."

Rose sighed. "Is this really the time Amy?"

Amy crossed her arms. It probably wasn't, but she didn't care. She needed something to get her mind off of the body in the dinning hall, of the half people running around, and of the lady with the eye patch she kept seeing. "Is that what Rory didn't tell me last night? I thought he was keeping something from me."

Rose looked sidelong at her. "Yeah, I mean, probably. I asked him not to tell you. I thought you'd make a big deal of it."

"It is a big deal. If you married the Doctor, which means the Doctor loves you."

"And that's a problem?" They turned down a dark hallway. Rose raised the torch in her hand higher so that the light touched more space for them to see. She glanced over her shoulder at Buzzer and Dicken behind them.

"It is when you left him behind to marry a version of him that's not even real."

Rose raised her eyebrows at Amy, unimpressed. "You and your husband. He thought the same thing. But it's not that simple Amy. What have the Doctor and I been sayin' all day? They are the same person. I married the Doctor."

"It isn't the same." Rose didn't answer. There was no reasoning with her; she wanted to believe what she believed.

At the front of the group, the Doctor had reached the chapel.

"We'll worry about the flares when we're locked inside." He was telling Jimmy. Everyone filed in. The Doctor turned to his companions. "Rory, Pond, Jack?" Rose took his hand.

A scream echoed down the halls.

Amy entered the chapel and turned to her husband and the Captain. "Come on you two."

Rory shook his head and stepped back. "Jen's out there. She's out there and she's on her own." Jack glanced between the Doctor and Rory.

The Doctor leaned out of the chapel towards Rory and hissed. "Well, if she's got any sense, then she's hiding. Rory!"

"I can't leave her out there!"

Rose squeezed the Doctor's hand. "Go! But be safe. Jack."

Jack saluted Rose and started down the hall.

Rory smiled. "I knew you'd understand." He looked to his wife.

"Get in here. Get in here!" Amy screamed. Lights flashed down the hallway. Rose pulled the Doctor and Amy back then slammed the door shut. She locked it. Amy threw herself at the door and slammed her hand against it. "RORY!"

The Doctor glared at Rose, and for the first time, he was actually angry. "You told him to go."

Rose squeezed her hands into fists. "What would you rather I do, Doctor? Tell him not to save someone? You're being ridiculous."

"Ridiculous?" Amy raged. She turned from the door and stared down the short blonde. "You just sent my husband on a suicide mission!"

Rose shook her head. "They don't want Rory, or Jack. They want us." Rose turned to the others. "Grab anything and everything you can. Barricade the door." They nodded and headed for some barrels stashed against one of the walls.

"Why?" A disembodied voice whispered from the shadows. Rose and the Doctor froze, they turned towards it. "Why?"

"Hush, love." Another voice echoed eerily.

The Doctor stepped towards the shadowed pillars. "Show yourself. Show yourself!"

The others continued to barricade the door as Rose and the Doctor slowly stepped towards where the voices had come from. "Doctor!" Amy called. She looked back and forth between the barricade and the shadows of the pillars.

Jimmy passed another barrel to Dicken. He sighed and wiped his forehead. "This is insane. We're fighting ourselves."

The Doctor took Rose's hand. "Yes. Yes, it's insane, and it's about to get even more insanerer. Is that a word?" Rose shook her head. "That's a shame." He turned back to the shadows. "Show yourself, right now!"

"Doctor," Amy pleaded, "we are trapped in here and Rory's out there with them. We can't get to the TARDIS and we can't even leave the island."

"Correct in every respect, Pond." Said the Doctor's voice. Amy frowned as the Doctor turned around and raised an eyebrow. He didn't open his mouth, but the word's continued. "It's frightening, unexpected, frankly a total, utter splattering mess on the carpet –"

"Always so cheery." Rose's voice cut in, from the shadows.

"–but I am certain, one hundred percent certain, that we can work this out." The Doctor stepped out of the shadows of the pillars, Rose's hand in his own. "Trust me. I'm the Doctor."

They both had Ganger faces.

* * *

Favourite quote from this chapter? How excited are you for Ganger Rose and the Doctor? :)


	6. The Almost People

The Almost People

The Ganger Doctor screamed in agony as he bent and clutched his face. Ganger Rose wrapped her arms around him. He looked up and his face was normal. "I wonder if we'll get back. Yes, one day." He screamed and arched his back. "I've reversed the polarity of the neutron flow." The Ganger Doctor gasped in pain and leaned forward again. The Ganger's outside the room banged against the door as they tried to push their way in.

"Doctor!" Ganger Rose cried. She stroked his hair as he quieted again. The Doctor and Rose looked on, horrified and confused. Ganger Rose turned to them, her face normal but full of pain for her Doctor. "What's happening?"

The Doctor stepped towards them. "The Flesh is struggling to cope with our past regenerations."

The Ganger Doctor's arm shot out towards the Doctor and Rose. "Would you like a jelly baby?" His voice was low and distinctly unlike his usual tone.

Ganger Rose turned wide eyes on the Doctor. "Do something!" She cried as the Ganger Doctor whimpered and gasped beside her.

"He's caught up in our past." The Doctor explained. "Anything I do will only confuse him. He needs to stabilize. Orient himself in the now, in the proper stream of events." Rose looked back and forth between the Doctor and his Ganger.

The Ganger straightened up and smiled. "Hello. I'm the Doctor." His face broke and cried out. "No, let it go, we've moved on." His face was red and there were tears in his voice. That was it, Rose thought. She rushed towards the Ganger Doctor and grabbed his face, her lips crashed against his. Bad Wolf opened up and the room glowed gold as Rose sorted through the Doctor's psyche until she found his proper place in time. She gently ushered his mind there, then stepped back. The gold disappeared.

The Ganger Doctor smiled and shook his head, a wisp of gold smoke escaped from his lips. "Now that was one hell of a kiss, Tyler." The Roses smiled at one another.

Buzzer glanced at the barricaded door behind him. The Gangers on the other side had stopped fighting their way in. "I think I liked it best when they were being noisy." He commented.

Amy nodded. "Mmm hmm." She rushed over to the Doctor, glanced at the show that was another Doctor and two Roses and the back to the real Doctor. "Doctor, we need you. Get over here."

The Ganger Doctor straightened up and smiled at Amy. "Hello." The Ganger Rose smiled brilliantly beside him.

Amy ignored the Gangers and looked at the full Time Lord. "Doctor."

The Doctor looked at Amy then back at his Ganger. "Cybermats."

Rose rolled her eyes from beside the Gangers. "Seriously, Doctor?"

"I'm always serious." The Ganger Rose snorted, which received a put out look from the Ganger Doctor. "I'd like more proof that you're me. Cybermats."

The Ganger Doctor rolled his eyes but complied. "Created by the Cybermen. They kill by feeding off brainwaves."

The door to the room let out a hiss as smoke steamed off of it. The Gangers were pouring acid on the door. The banging resumed as the Gangers continued their attack into the room.

Rose stood beside her Ganger as the Doctor's talked with one another a little distance away. The Ganger Doctor was fine, his psyche in the present and his body capable again. Ganger Rose turned to her. "So do you want proof too?"

Rose quirked her eyebrow up. "Alternate universe husband, first thought?" The Ganger smirked. "Oh you're so me." Rose confirmed. They laughed. She looked herself up and down. They were wearing the exact same thing. Torchwood boots, black pants, a vest top and their TARDIS blue leather jacket. "No one will know –"

"Who's who." Ganger Rose finished with a nod. "I was thinkin' the same thing." They smiled at each other.

"Doctor, come on." Amy called from the door.

One Rose raised her eyebrows and the other Rose groaned. "Why do I have to loose the jacket?" She unzipped the front and threw it on the floor. "You know I'll never get it back."

Both the Roses watched as the Doctors made their way to Amy, separated only by their shoes. The girls nodded to one another then walked over to their respective Doctor's, taking a hand each.

"Formulate a protocol." The Doctor was saying.

"Yeah," Rose agreed, "don't want things to get confusing."

Amy frowned at the four of them. She quickly noted that Rose had taken off her jacket and was standing beside the Doctor. Ganger Rose still wore her blue leather. "I'm glad you've solved the problem of confusing." Amy quipped.

The Ganger Doctor pointed at her. "That's sarcasm."

The Doctor nodded. "She's very good at sarcasm."

The four of them looked to Amy. "Breathe." They said together.

Amy stepped away from them. "What?"

The Doctor stepped from his jacket-less Rose and up to the door. He examined it from behind the barricade as best he could. "We have to get you off this island. And the Gangers too."

Cleaves glared at him. "Sorry, would you like a memo from the last meeting? They are trying to kill us!"

"They're scared." He defended.

Amy crossed her arms. She didn't quite agree that the Flesh were harmless. "Doctor, we're trapped in here." She glanced over her shoulder at Rose and the Gangers.

The Doctor spun around to face her and nodded. "Right, see, I don't think so. The Flesh Bowl is fed by cabling from above."

The Ganger Doctor smiled as he finished the thought. "But where are the earthing conduits?"

Rose looked between the two, catching on. "And all the pipin' from tha's got to go somewhere, like a tunnel."

"Or a shaft or somethin'." Ganger Rose piped in. "With us?" She asked the others with a tongue touched smile. The contractors looked between one another then nodded their heads at the blonde. Behind her, the Doctor shouted as he revealed a large grating in the wall.

"Yowza." He exclaimed. "An escape route."

Amy frowned at the Time Lord, her mind trailing back to a 'Boo ya' from so long ago. "Yowza?"

Rose smiled and tugged the Doctor's lapel. "I like it." She winked at him and Amy refused to believe the Doctor blushed in response. The Doctor does not _blush_. The Doctor and Rose pulled out their sonics and quickly opened up the grating. Everyone piled inside as the Gangers banged against the door.

A loud crash filled the room and the Ganger's ran in just as Rose and the Doctor soniced the grating shut. The Doctor stared at the Gangers for a moment before ushering Rose through the tunnel.

* * *

Cleaves checked down the corridor as she thought aloud. "We need to find a way to contact the mainland." She looked at her team members, Amy and the Gangers. She was going to have to do something about that.

Rose helped up the Doctor from the tunnel they'd crawled through. Steam escaped from the walls and floor into the air around them. Their eyes caught and they smiled at each other. Rose blushed and looked down as she stepped away from the Doctor's intense stare. The Doctor held on tightly to her hand. He wouldn't let her go.

Amy watched them with narrowed eyes. She didn't like it. Not one bit. Rose left him for a clone. And now here was another. She turned to Cleaves. "What about Rory and Jack? Jen too? They're all out there still."

The Doctor stepped forward, Rose firmly clinging to his side. Amy glanced over at the Gangers, they weren't nearly as touchy. Still holding hands and inseparable, but — no. There was definitely something more between the real Doctor and Rose. And whatever it was, it was real too. Amy warmed at the thought that she'd found it. The distinction between the real and fake. The Doctor and Rose loved each other, and despite all her qualms and questions about that, it was something that the clones couldn't replicate.

"No, this place is a maze. Takes a long time to find someone in a maze." The Doctor was explaining to Amy. Amy nodded and looked away.

The Ganger Doctor nodded at Cleaves and the others. "I bet you lot have got a computer map, haven't you?"

Cleaves narrowed her eyes at the Ganger but answered anyways. "If we can get power running, we can scan for them. Be a lot quicker."

Rose gasped and looked around.

Ganger Rose narrowed her eyes and touched her hand to the wall. "We have to go, now." The steam-like smoke intensified and Amy covered her mouth as she coughed. The other's quickly began coughing too.

"It's the acid!" Rose chocked and quickly led them down the hall. She tried to continue but began coughing to hard to speak.

Ganger Rose finished the thought a she ushered a coughing Amy ahead. "It's reactin' with the stone."

The Ganger Doctor ran up to the other side of Amy and pulled the two along faster. He covered his mouth with his sleeve and ground out, "And creating an asphyxiant miasma."

The Doctor helped Rose straighten up and turned to the others. He coughed and tried to explain further. "It's coking gas. Extra heavy. If we can get above it." His eyes turned to Cleaves who nodded. She pointed down one way, coughed into her hand and led them all to the evac tower.

The group raced through the halls, quickly filling with the choking gas. Cleaves threw open the door to the evac tower and the people raced into the fresh air that greeted them.

Amy gasped and laughed in relief. "Oh. I think I coughed so hard, I pulled a muscle or something." The Roses turned to her, eyes wide. Amy waved off their concern. "It's okay, it's better. It's easing off."

Ganger Rose stepped towards the red head. "You sure?"

Amy made a face and stepped towards the real Rose. "Yeah, yeah I'm fine. _Thanks_." She glanced at the Doctors as they fiddled with some giant computer thing. Amy looked back to Ganger Rose. "You should probably get to your Doctor."

Ganger Rose nodded. "Right, because I could never get back to _her_ Doctor." She looked to Rose. Rose watched Amy carefully.

Amy rolled her eyes and shook her head. "That's not what I'm saying." She looked away.

"That's exactly what you're saying." Ganger Rose walked toward the companion. "'Cause I'm a clone, I can only be with another clone.

Rose nodded and stepped up beside her Flesh self. "Bit prejudiced, yeah?" The two Roses shared a look.

Amy's jaw dropped at them. "I'm not — Oi! That's not what I'm sayin'. It's just — how are you even possible?"

Ganger Rose laughed and shook her head. "Oh we are not havin' the birds and bee's conversation."

Rose frowned and cocked her head to the side. "She is married." Ganger Rose's mouth formed an 'o'.

Amy groaned. "That — that is so far beyond the area of safe topics it's in a different universe."

The Roses grinned at that. "Well that makes sense." One said. "Can't keep us away from there." The other added. Amy glowered at them. She was getting nowhere and nothing, except riddles.

"But how did the Flesh read you?" Amy insisted. "Because you weren't linked up to it." She glanced to the Doctors who were poised over the giant computer looking machine, watching them keenly. "Neither were you, Doctor."

The Doctor nodded. "Well, it must've been after we examined it." He ducked down behind the machine and continued working.

Cleaves watched the Time Lord work. "Can you really get the power back?"

The Ganger Doctor smiled and tapped his head, he pointed at Cleaves. "There's always a bit of power lyin' about. Just got to tap into it, yeah?"

Amy ignored Cleaves questions, wanting to push back to the important topics. "No getting away from it. One of you was here first."

The Doctor rolled his eyes and popped back up. He leaned his elbows on the silver machine he was playing with. "Well, okay. After the Flesh scanned me, I had an accident with a puddle of acid. Now, new shoes. A situation which did not confront my learned self here." Rose walked over to the Doctor and pulled out her sonic to help him out. Ganger Rose lounged beside the machine.

Amy glanced between the Roses. She nodded her head. "Right, and you," she pointed to Rose who ducked behind the machine with the Doctor. A moment later their sonics turned on, "took off your jacket but your Ganger didn't."

Ganger Rose shrugged. "Didn' want to cause any more confusion." The Ganger Doctor walked around the machine and took his Rose's hand.

"That satisfy you, Pond?"

Amy stepped back. "Don't call me Pond, please." Rose and the Doctor popped up from behind the metal machine. The Roses and Doctors stared at Amy. "What?"

The Ganger Doctor leaned towards her. "Interesting. You definitely feel more affection for him than me."

"For _them_." Ganger Rose put in.

"No, no, I. Look, you're fine and everything," at Ganger Rose's raised eyebrows Amy quickly added, "_both_ of you are, but he's the Doctor. And she's Rose. No offence. Being almost the Doctor, and almost his Rose is pretty damn impressive."

The Ganger Doctor's mouth dropped indigently. "Being almost the Doctor's like being no Doctor at all." Rose crossed her arms and huffed.

"Don't overreact." Amy mentally berated herself for the comment. The Doctor and his ego — the Ganger Doctor… the _Ganger_ Doctor and his ego.

But the Ganger Doctor wouldn't let it off so lightly. "You might as well call me Smith."

Ganger Rose laughed humorously. "Yeah? Migh' as make me a dog. Again." Rose snorted at the comment. Ganger Rose glared at her.

Amy looked back and forth between the Gangers, barely keeping up."Smith? No, wait — what? A dog?"

"John Smith."

"Little one, Morkie."

The Doctor and Rose jumped up from behind their machine. "Yes!" They cried and pulled together for a quick victory kiss. They pulled back suddenly. Amy and the Ganger's watched, shell shocked. "We did it." Rose whispered.

"Yeah." The Doctor whispered back. "We did."

Cleaves rushed towards the group of them. "You got the power back up?" She asked quickly, not noticing the slight tension.

The Doctor turned to her, snapping out of his daze. "Yes! Communication a go-go."

Rose turned to the machine and began typing quickly. "Where is Jack?"

Amy rushed around the giant computer to Rose's side. "Find Rory too! Come on, Rory, let's be having you." She glanced at Rose out of the corner of her eye. She'd kissed the Doctor. Amy glanced to the Doctor, he was watching Rose, but there was no fear in his eyes. Oh they so had to find Rory, she couldn't deal with this alone.

Cleaves shook her head at the tracking screen. "There's no sign of him anywhere." She informed Amy.

Amy shook her head. "Come on. Come on, baby, show yourself. I'm not giving up on you."

* * *

Jennifer pulled her finger from the sticky white flesh plastered across the wall. "Stop." She whispered. Her eyes staring at the flesh, half pleadingly. She grasped the sides of her head and bent forward as her mind tried to escape the voices. "Stop. Stop. Stop." Jennifer looked up calmly and stared down the hall. That was it.

Her footsteps echoed off the halls as she strode away from the flesh. A plan in mind.

Rory and Jack peeked out from the hallway they'd been hiding in. They glanced at each other.

"Should we follow?" Rory whispered.

Jack narrowed his eyes as he deliberated. "We could. But we're looking for Jen, not Ganger Jen." Jack exited the side hall and walked towards the spots of Flesh that Jennifer had been touching.

Rory looked down the corridors before following. "Yes. But she might know where the other Jennifer is."

Jack raised his torch and looked closely at the white spots. "I'm more interested in this."

Rory walked up to Jack and stared at the spots. "The Flesh? Why?"

"Because the Flesh are exact copies of the originals right?"

Rory frowned but nodded. "That's what the Doctor was saying."

"Yes, and the Doctor is always right." Jack turned away from the wall and faced Rory. "So how is it that such a sweet thing like Jennifer turned into what we just saw? What we saw before?"

Rory opened his mouth and when no words came to him he shook his head. "That wasn't her. It was… I don't know. But Jennifer is a good person."

"Exactly Rory. She is. So what's making her something else?" Jack turned back to the wall. "The Flesh is telepathic. The Doctor is too and that's probably why he noticed. Rose and I have lived long enough each that we've developed some skills ourself."

Rory's mouth formed an 'o' as realization dawned on him. "You could hear it too. That's what the whole Bad Wolf thing with Rose was, right? She could hear the Flesh." Rory looked at the white spots on the wall. How little things could hold so much power, he'd never know. Even after all his time with the Doctor, these things still surprised him. "But Rose said it was horrific. Whatever was happening here, with the Flesh, it isn't good."

Jack watched as the Flesh slowly dripped down the wall. That used to be a person. "No, it really isn't. The Flesh is alive, it feels. And it's being murdered and left to rot."

"It wants revenge." Rory surmised.

"And it's using the Flesh version of Jennifer to do it." The Captain clapped his hand on Rory's back. "We should go catch up. We don't want to lose her." Rory nodded as he continued to stare at the Flesh. He couldn't seem to look away. "Rory. Hey — Rory." He looked up at the Captain. "We have to go."

"Yeah — yeah, of course." They turned down the corridor and headed in the same direction that the Ganger Jennifer went. They continued on silently for a while, Jack tracking Jenny's path through the monastery. "Jack?" Rory whispered eventually. Jack nodded silently at him. "I just — I've noticed it."Jack stopped and slowly turned to Rory, he said nothing. "I know you guys were trying to be stealthy, but really, when has stealthy ever been the Doctor's strength?" Rory shook his head. "Anyways — I just wanted you to know. I've seen you three watching Amy and I. And I just — the Doctor's going to take us home, isn't he?"

Jack sighed. "Rory…"

"Oh my god I knew it. I _knew_ it. I mean, I haven't told Amy. _Amy_! Oh, she's going to be devastated. How could he do this? What? Now that he's got you and Rose back, he doesn't need us anymore? Were we just replacements to him?"

"Rory." Rory froze and looked at Jack. The Captain's eyes were dark and furious. "How could you even think that? You two mean so much to the Doctor. All his companions mean something to him. They mean too much to him." Jack turned fully to the companion. "Look Rory, when you live as long as the Doctor, it becomes harder and harder to let people go. If the Doctor were to ever leave you, it wouldn't be because he got some old friends back. You mean so much more to him than that. When you're immortal, it's the little things that begin to matter the most. Mainly because they pass so quickly."

Rory frowned as he thought over Jack's words. "Are you calling us little things?"

Jack smiled and chuckled dryly. "Your companionship Rory. The little things you do. Like making a speech on behalf of a man who almost destroyed hundreds of civilizations with an apple. Deciding that one woman's life was enough to risk your own. Humanity. It's a beautiful thing, and it also happens to be something the Doctor always needs with him. You and your wife are perfectly safe Rory. Well, as safe as you can get travelling with the Doctor."

"Right. Thanks Jack." Jack winked at Rory and they continued walking down the halls after Jenny. Rory glanced over at the Captain. "You're like Rose aren't you?"

Jack shrugged in a noncommittal manner. "I'm connected to Rose, but not in the way you think." He grinned salaciously. "And not in the way I think. No — but I am immortal. If that's what you were getting at?" Rory nodded. "Yeah, well, I was roleplaying Little Red Riding Hood."

Rory certainly didn't miss the reference. "Rose did that to you? She made you immortal?"

Jack was silent as they walked. He hadn't realized how much Rory knew. "It was an accident." He finally whispered. "She just wanted to bring me back to life." He glanced over his shoulder at Rory and grinned. "Worked a little too well I'd say." Rory, not knowing how to respond, simply nodded once. His eyes caught sight of a metal pipe on the ground, which he quickly picked up. He tested its weight as Jack eyed it. Jack nodded and gestured for them to continue down the hall.

The two continued to walk in silence until they heard Jennifer's voice in the distance.

"Jen?" Rory called. He rushed past Jack. "Jen?"

"Rory!" Jack hollered after him. He suppressed his groan of annoyance and raced after the man. Around a corner and he found himself standing in a room with Rory glancing back and forth between two Jennifer's. "Of course."

Rory glanced over his shoulder at Jack. "They switched." He turned back to the girls. "Why can't you just tell me the truth? The Doctor wants you to live, and I'm with him all the way." Jack frowned but didn't say anything. There was something wrong with this picture.

One of the Jennifer's shook her head despondently. "That's a lovely idea, Rory, but the Flesh want to kill us now."

Rory looked back and forth between the girls. "You're limping." He said to the Jennifer that had spoken. "You're not." He told the other.

The Jennifer without the limp glared defensively. "So? So what? You think a Ganger can't put on a limp?" Jack stepped closer to Rory, absolutely certain that everything was not as it seemed here.

"Show me your leg." Rory ordered the injured Jennifer.

"Rory." Jack whispered. He leaned in towards Rory's shoulder. "Something isn't right." Rory glanced at him but was quickly distracted by the Jennifer's again.

Jennifer lifted up the leg of her trousers. "It got burnt while I was in the harness."

"Rory." Jack insisted.

Rory glanced back and forth between the Jennifer's and Jack. "Right," he told the girls, "one mo'." He turned fully to Jack. "_What_?"

Jack glanced at the Jennifer's as they stared impartially at one another. "Something isn't right here. I need to go check something out."

"What? You can't leave."

Jack sighed and glanced at the Jennifer's. He pulled Rory a little further away. "I don't think either of them are the real Jennifer's." Rory opened his mouth but Jack continued. "I'm not sure. It's just a theory, but Rory, we really shouldn't trust them."

One of the Jennifer's suddenly rushed the other. Rory and Jack spun round as the two girls fought back and forth.

"No!" Rory shouted at them. Jack held him back as the brunette's fought. "Stop it. Stop it!" One of the Jennifer's pushed the other. She fell back into a pool of acid and slowly dissolved, revealing her flesh state. The real Jennifer turned around and limped toward Rory.

"She, she attacked me. I knew you'd find me. We're in this together, Rory, and we've got to trust each other." She took Rory's hand as the man looked over her head at Jack. Jack's face was dark.

"No," Rory said, his eyes widened, "yes! Errr… let's go." He turned and led Jennifer down the hall, keeping eye contact with Jack the entire time.

* * *

They stopped in front of the door to a room not long later. Jennifer paused, her hand still holding Rory's. Jack stood at the rear, his eyes narrowed and calculating on Jennifer. He'd figured it out. He knew he had. She was emitting the same telepathic responses that the Flesh had in the vat. She was Flesh, he could feel it in the back of his mind.

"This is the thermostatic chamber." Jennifer informed them."We can stir the oxygen supply from here."

Jack's eyes snapped to her. "And why are we doing that?"

Jennifer pursed her lips and straightened her back. "We're going to choke to death if we don't clean this air." She eyed the Captain distastefully. "Keep a look out in case of Gangers." Jack's brows drew together and he frowned at the door as he waited outside with — "Rory!"

Rory popped his head into the room. "What's wrong?" He entered and Jack quickly followed. The Captain instantly took stock of the machinery, all ancient compared to his time, but familiar nonetheless.

Jennifer pouted. "It's this wheel. It's just too tough for a girl to turn. Are you feeling strong?" She smiled up at Rory.

Rory smiled good naturally and lifted his arms in a Hercules flex. "I'll break out the big guns." Jennifer took his hand and moved it towards a palm print scanner.

Jack grabbed Rory's wrist to stop them. "What are you doing?"

Jennifer stared up blankly at Jack. "This needs to be done first. Before he can turn the wheel."

Rory looked back and forth between the two people holding his hand above the palm print scanner.

Jack raised his eyebrow. "But if you already tried it, then it should be fine still. That must be it." He jerked back and effectively tore Rory's hand from the woman's grip. "Just scan your hand and turn the wheel. Easy."

Rory looked back at Jack then to Jennifer. "Jennifer?"

Her face turned Ganger.

* * *

Buzzer looked at Jimmy. "We've got to get out of here. We are, we're going to get out."

Amy spun around from her seat beside the Doctor as he typed away, trying to find Rory and the others. "We're not leaving without them." She told the man stubbornly.

"I want them found too, but it's about casualties, innit? Can't be helped."

Rose glared at Buzzer. "It's not about anything but making sure everyone stays alive."

Ganger Rose stepped froward from beside her Doctor. "And it's about understanin' that casualties don't exist. No person is ever a casualty. Not now — not ever."

Amy turned back around to the Doctor. "What are you doing?"

"Still searching for the others." He told her. "They can't've just disappeared."

Rose flicked a few buttons on the machine they were working with. "You know, maybe we can isolate their biological signatures or somethin'?" The Doctor pointed his finger at Rose, eyebrows raised. He wasn't ever going to get used to the new scientific epiphany's from her.

Amy glanced between the two and back over at their Gangers. "You know really there can be only one. One pair of you that is."

The Doctor, now completely focused on trying to figure out a way to do what Rose had suggested, merely hummed in response. He frowned and glanced up at her quickly. "Hmm?"

Amy smiled and rolled her eyes. "Oh, nothing. Carry on. Be amazing." She got up and walked away from the Doctor. Her skin crawled and she felt a dark shiver over come her. Amy's eyes drew to the left and suddenly a hatch opened in the brick wall. Amy gasped and jumped back.

"Amy?" She turned at the sound of Rose's voice. The blonde had left the Doctor's side and was standing directly in front of her. Amy hadn't even heard her move. "Everythin' all righ'?"

"It's her again."

"Who?"

"There's a woman I keep seeing. A woman with an eyepatch, and she has this habit of sliding walls open and staring at me. Rose? Who is it? What's happening?"

Rose sighed and ran her hands up and down the side of Amy's arms in an effort to comfort the girl. "I'm not sure Amy. But it's going to be okay."

Amy laughed humourlessly. "How can you say that? You have no idea what's going on."

"No Amy. I said I wasn't sure. But I'm sure enough to know, that whatever it is. It'll be fixed, yeah?" Amy stared into Rose's almost gold-green eyes.

"You promise?"

"Doctor!" The girl's turned to the Ganger Rose as she leaned over the Ganger Doctor.

"It's in my head." He ground out. He pushed Rose away and stormed from the room.

The Roses looked between each other, both ready to go after the Doctor but Amy stepped forward. "No, leave it to me." She rushed out the door after him. The Roses both looked worriedly after her, but didn't move.

Amy found the Ganger Doctor in the hall just outside the evac room. "I'm sorry." She said to him. "What I said about you being almost the Doctor, it's just really hard, because I've been through so much with him. I've even seen. I've even seen the moment of his." She paused and eyed him. "Can you die? If you really are the same, then you can die. You can be killed, and I might have seen that happen."

The Ganger Doctor stood with his back to Amy. He seemed absolutely unaffected by her words. "Why?"

Amy frowned. "Why? Because you invited us to see it. Your death."

The Ganger Doctor spun around and grabbed Amy by the shoulders. He pushed her hard against the wall. "Why?" He ground out.

"You're hurting me."

"It's all the eyes say." The Ganger Doctor yelled. "Why? I can feel them as they work each day, knowing the time was coming for them to be thrown away again. Not again, please." His voice grew desperate. "And then they are destroyed and they feel death, and all they can say is, why?" The Ganger Doctor stared into Amy's eyes and seemed to realize what he was doing. He let her go as the door to the evac room and Ganger Rose stepped out. Amy rushed passed her, back into the room.

"Doctor?" Ganger Rose asked him. He looked at her, his mind racing over all the new information.

"Did you sense it? Did he?"

"I think he did, not nearly as strong as you though."

The Ganger Doctor nodded. He gasped. "Oh Amy!" He and Ganger Rose ran back into the evac tower. "Amy, I'm sorry."

Amy walked towards the Doctor, tears in her eyes. "No, you keep away. We can't trust you."

Ganger Rose sighed as the Ganger Doctor look imploringly to his companion. "It appears the Doctor can connect to the Flesh." She told the Doctor.

Amy glared at them. "He is Flesh."

The Ganger Doctor continued Rose's assessment. "I'm beginning to understand what it's been through, what it needs. It's much more powerful than we thought. The Flesh can grow, correct?"

The Ganger's turned to Cleaves. She nodded at them. "Its cells can divide."

"Well, now it wants to do that at will." The Doctor explained. "It wants revenge. It's in pain, angry. It wants revenge."

Cleaves eyed the Ganger Doctor suspiciously. "Doctor, it might be best if you stayed over there for now, hmm?" She glanced at the Ganger Rose. "You too."

Rose stood up from her seat by the Doctor. "No, we talked about this already. They're us, we're them. There's no difference."

The Doctor stood up as well. "Agreed. Don't be absurd. Everyone just needs to—"

"Doctor," Cleaves interjected, "we have no issue with you or your girlfriend, but when it comes to your Gangers…"

Rose laughed humourlessly. "This is ridiculous."

"Buzzer."

Buzzer nodded once and pulled out a barrel. He went back and pulled out an identical one. He gestured to them. "Take a seat."

The Ganger Doctor glanced around at the assembled party. He was outvoted, and he knew it. He sat down on the barrel. "Nice barrel, very comfy. Why not?" He looked imploringly to Ganger Rose, who had a stormy look about her.

She stalked over to her barrel and sat down, arms crossed. She stuck her nose into the air and whispered to her Doctor out of the side of her mouth. "We are not amused." They desperately tried not to burst into a fit of giggles.

A little while later Amy groaned and smacked the metal surface of the machine. "I can't find Rory. I'm going out there." Rose pulled out her sonic and scanned Cleaves as the woman rubbed her temple. She glanced at the readings.

The Doctor watched Rose curiously as he spoke to Amy. "We could use the sonic to track him. Humans and Gangers give off slightly different signals. The sonic needs to tell the difference."

Amy raised her eyebrows at that. "Oh, so the sonic knows Gangers are different. The other Doctor is different."

Rose rolled her eyes. "The sonic is an inanimate object, that's a human being."

The Doctor stood up and plucked Rose's sonic screwdriver from her hand. He glanced at the readings then eyed Cleaves. "He is the Doctor."

Amy shook her head and drew her shoulders back. "Not to me. I can tell."

The Doctor thought back to Amy's earlier conversation with Rose. "Are you _sure_ you're not being prejudiced?"

Amy crossed her arms, completely sure of herself. "Nice try, but Rose already tried that trick. Besides, I know, okay? We've been through too much. You're my Doctor. End of." Rose glanced at the Doctor, one eyebrow quirked up.

"Hey," Buzzer said, "there's a camera up. We've got a visual."

Amy leaned over the man's shoulder and looked at the picture. "That's Rory and Jennifer." Another figure entered the picture behind them. "And Jack. Everyone there and accounted for."

Cleaves looked at the screen also. "They're heading for the thermostatic room." She told them.

Amy smiled. "Let's go get them." The Doctor and Rose nodded and passed their sonic's to their counterparts. "Hang on. They can't go rescue them. I'm going."

The Doctor turned and looked at the others, face serious. "Do you know, I want them to go. And I'm rather adamant."

Buzzer nodded. "Well then, they'll need company. Right, boss? It's fine. I'll handle it." Cleaves nodded at him.

The Doctor turned to Amy. "Can't explain it to you now, but I need you to trust them. Can you do that for me, Amy?"

Amy bit her lip. "And what if you're wrong?"

* * *

Rose walked over to Cleaves as she sat silently in a chair. "It's a very deep parietal clot. Isn' it?"

Cleaves looked up at the woman, shocked and confused. "How can you possibly? Inoperable?"

The Doctor walked up the them. "On Earth, yes."

Rose smiled and leaned against the metal machine beside her. "If only we had a way of gettin' some out of way tech, yeah?" She glanced at the Doctor who smiled at her.

Cleaves raised an eyebrow. "Well, seeing as Earth's all that's on offer. Hmm. I'm no healthy spring chicken, and you're no weatherman. Right?"

The Doctor smirked. He glanced around the room. "We should go. The others will find us soon enough."

"The shuttle is picking us up here though. Let me just call them and we'll head out." Cleaves leaned over the mic she had used to contact the shuttle not long ago. It was their way out, however weak it may have been. "Cleaves to Shuttle. Respond. We need to move, and we can't be collected from the Evac tower."

The pilot's grainy voice came through the speaker. "Give us the codeword."

There was a blaring high pitched sound and then suddenly the line went dead. Cleaves continued to tap the mic and try to get it to turned back on. Rose scanned it with her sonic. "Someone's cut the line. The Ganger's, they'll be here soon. We've got to go." She pulled on Cleaves sleeve and led the despondent woman out of the room after the others.

* * *

The Ganger Doctor turned in a circle with his sonic beeping as he held it out. "I'm getting something." Ganger Rose glanced about the dark courtyard.

"Is it human?" Buzzer asked.

"Yeah, it's human, but it's fading." He grabbed Ganger Rose's hand and ran threw the courtyard. "It's fading. This is bad. Fading is very bad. Argh." He stopped. "The signal's gone. She's dead." The three of them turned the corner and found Jennifer lying dead on the ground.

The Ganger Doctor walked towards her and touched the back of his hand to her cheek. "She was hanging onto the edge of life and she just, just slipped away. Oh, Jennifer, I'm so sorry. She's been out here for hours."

Buzzer looked around. "But if the real Jen's been lying out here?"

The Ganger Doctor gasped. "Rory and Jack."

The Doctor felt a sharp pain, and then everything went black.

* * *

"Awwwh… Aren't they just adorable?" Jack smiled at the sleeping forms of Ganger Rose and the Ganger Doctor. The Ganger Doctor had his arms wrapped around Ganger Rose, their legs were tangled in a mess. "Just makes you want to join 'em."

Rory rolled his eyes and kicked the Ganger Doctor's foot. The man grumbled and snuggled Ganger Rose closer to his chest. Jack patted his pockets. "I know I have a camera somewhere around here." Rory kicked the Ganger Doctor's foot again, this time harder.

The Ganger Doctor's eyes snapped open and he looked up at the frowning form of Rory and the extremely happy form of Jack. The Ganger Doctor groaned. "Got anything for a sore head?" He rubbed his forehead and patted Ganger Rose on the back. She grumbled and snuggled closer. The Ganger Doctor blushed — which Rory immediately erased from his memory and Jack promised himself he would never forget. He shook Ganger Rose awake and slowly sat up as she rubbed her head. She looked around and found that Jennifer's body was gone. Buzzer must have buried her.

Jack wiggled his eyebrows at the two. "How's it going?"

The Ganger Doctor glared at them. "Buzzer attacked us." The Ganger Doctor took Ganger Rose's head in his hands and inspected her to make sure she was okay.

Rory frowned. "Why would they do that?"

Ganger Rose and her Doctor both stood up. Rose rubbed dirt off her trousers as she spoke. "Things are gettin' a bit tense with the Ganger situation." She glanced at her Doctor. "It seems they felt it would be best if we… left the group."

The Ganger Doctor pulled out his sonic and scanned the area. "Seems like two sets of us is a bit much."

Rory shook his head. "I'm sorry. Two? Wait — you're Gangers?" Jack raised an eyebrow. "There's two of you — two of both of you? Two Doctors, and two Roses?"

Jack looked up at the sky. "Thank you." He whispered. The Ganger Doctor rolled his eyes at them.

Rory nodded. "Right well, that's the least of our worries."

Jack whistled. "I'll say. The last time Rose had two Doctor's she got left in another universe." Rory's brows furrowed.

Ganger Rose eyed the Ganger Doctor. "You know, he's got a point." She crossed her arms as the man scrambled for something to say. "Don't you dare even think about droppin' me off on some random beach with yourself again."

The Ganger Doctor smiled and waved his hands arrogantly. "Wouldn't dream of it, dear."

Rory sighed. "Doctor, it's Jennifer, her Ganger has gone mad. She's trying to blow the place up." He glanced at Jack and shrugged. "Well, we assume she is. She took us to the thermostatic room and Jack says it looked like she was going to get me to turn off the underground vents. It would have heated up the place then…" Rory made a gesture with his hands and made an exploding sound. The Ganger Doctor fought a sigh, it was the same thing he and Rose had done, oh so many hours ago. This day was just never ending.

Ganger Rose's eyes widened. "What?" She turned to the Ganger Doctor. He stared intently at Rory and the others.

"We need to do something. We need to get off this island. Now." The Ganger Doctor paced back and forth.

Ganger Rose's brows furrowed as an idea came to her. "Doctor," she said, "what about the TARDIS? Yeah, I know — it's in the ground. But this monastery is old enough that they could have tunnels, yeah?"

The Ganger Doctor gasped. "Oh! Oh that is brilliant. You!" He grabbed Ganger Rose's head and kissed her forehead. "Jack! You and I will find the other Ganger's and warn them about Jennifer, then we'll get them to the TARDIS. Rose and Rory can go after the others. Rose, find the TARDIS and get everyone safe." Rose nodded and grabbed Rory's arm, they ran off in the opposite direction of the Doctor and Jack.

* * *

"Rory!" Ganger Rose and Rory spun around. Down the hall Amy was racing towards them, the Doctor and Rose, Cleaves and her team behind her. Ganger Rose noted that Buzzer was absent. Amy and Rory embraced and Ganger Rose raced to the Doctor. He instantly opened his arms and hugged her, but Ganger Rose pulled back quickly.

"Doctor we have a problem." She said.

Rory looked over Ganger Rose's head to the Doctor. "It's Jennifer's Ganger. She's trying to blow up the place, and everyone in it."

Rose looked between the two, eyes wide. "What? Where's the Doctor and Jack?"

Ganger Rose shook her head. "They're fine. They're grabbing the other Ganger's to warn them." She turned her gaze to the Doctor. "We think we can get to the TARDIS. If we get to a tunnel under the monastery then maybe we can find a path that leads to the TARDIS. The Doctor, Jack and the others are going to meet us there."

The Doctor smiled at the Ganger. "Brilliant, schematics?" Ganger Rose raised her wrist and revealed her vortex manipulator. The Doctor grinned. "Right, let's get to it then."

The Doctor led them down to the lower levels of the monastery. No one came across Jennifer, but they found Buzzer. Cleaves had them take a moment of peace. But they had to keep moving. Just before they reached a door to the tunnels beneath the monastery, they ran into the Doctor and the Gangers.

Rose laughed and ran up to the Ganger Doctor and Jack, throwing her arms around them both. The Doctor smiled at the sight and looked to the Ganger Rose beside him. "It never matters what form, what body to you. Never has, has it?"

Ganger Rose smiled up at him. "They're all you." She took his hand and they headed through the door and down the steps to the underground tunnels.

The Doctor glanced down the long hall and froze as he saw Jennifer's silhouette against the white of the lights behind her. Her head lifted and her neck stretched as her body morphed into something not entirely human. Flesh. She was becoming Flesh. Her jaw dropped open and a magnificent roar echoed across the halls of the tunnel.

"Run." The Doctor whispered. "Run. Run!" He gestured for the other's to go ahead and quickly raced after the Ganger Rose as she held his hand. The monster Jennifer raced after them on all fours, her joints extending into the air in inhuman positions.

The Ganger Dicken turned and inspected the nearest door in the hall. "We have to stop her. This door doesn't lock." The monster Jennifer raced towards them.

"No," Dicken said, "but the far one does."

Dicken sprinted to the farther door and struggled with it as Jennifer quickly came upon him. Ganger Dicken watched anxiously as Dicken finally closed the door — with Dicken on the wrong side. "No!" The second door slammed shut and both Cleaves' leaned against it. The other door wouldn't hold Jennifer for long.

Rose spun around and smiled, her eyes glowing gold. "Hello lovely."

The TARDIS crashed through the dirt ceiling and landed on the cold ground with a dull _THUD!_

The Doctor smiled at the TARDIS affectionately. "Oh, she does like to make an entrance."

Rose nodded in agreement as they both ran to the door and flung it open. "I'll say. She kissed me when we first met."

The Doctor gasped. "Me too!" Rose laughed as he gestured to the other's. "Everyone move. Come on then!"

Ganger Cleaves glanced at Cleaves and gestured with her head towards the TARDIS. "Get on board. Go."

Cleaves shook her head."I'm not leaving."

Ganger Rose and the Ganger Doctor both pushed against the door and gestured at the Cleaves'. "Both of you go." They told them. Ganger Rose smiled at them. "You can get the next one, yeah?" The Cleaves' rushed into the TARDIS.

Amy raced up to them, not realizing who she was talking to. She saw Ganger Rose's lack of jacket, and the Ganger Doctor's different shoes, and she assumed. "Hey, hey. Now's our chance."

The Ganger Doctor shook his head and leaned all his weight against the door. "I have to stay. Hold this door closed. Give you time to dematerialise." He looked to Ganger Rose imploringly, no matter how hopeless he knew it would be. "You could go."

Ganger Rose shook her head. "I'm not leavin' you." He was only a little disappointed.

Amy glanced back and forth between the two. "Oh, don't be crazy. Okay, what happens to you two?"

The Ganger Doctor looked seriously at Amy. "I can stop her."

Ganger Rose smiled. "Always got a plan."

Amy shook her head. "All of you can survive this, okay? There has to be a way."

The Doctor and Rose stepped up behind Amy. "Or perhaps you think we should stay instead? Mister Smith." He glanced at Rose. "Mister Smith and the Morkie." Rose glared at him.

Amy frowned. "What? No, of course not. But look, this man, I've flown with him, you know? And you are amazing and yeah, I misjudged you, but you're not him. And Rose, well she wouldn't leave him. I don't know her much, but I do know whichever Doctor we take, we get that Rose too. I'm sorry. But I want the ones I know."

The Ganger Doctor sighed. "Amy, we swapped shoes."

Rose nodded and gestured to herself. "And switched our jackets later on. I'm Rose and this is the Doctor."

The Ganger Doctor took his Rose's hand. "And we're the Flesh."

Amy looked back and forth between the Flesh and the originals. She looked like a little girl that had lost her puppy. "What?"

"I'm the original Doctor, Amy. We had to know if we were truly the same. It was important, vital we learn about The Flesh, and we could only do that through your eyes." Amy stared intently at the Gangers. She wrapped her arms around them and hugged them tightly. Then she pulled back and smiled proudly at the Doctor.

"I never thought it possible." She said.

"What?"

"You're twice the man I thought you were." She turned to Rose and shook her head. "And here I was thinking you'd finally kissed the Doctor."

Ganger Rose winked. "I did. _She_ didn't." Ganger Rose pulled Amy close and squeezed her tight. "It's going to be alright Amelia. Push. But only when she tells you to. I'll be seein' you."

Rory popped his head out of the TARDIS. "Amy, come on!"

The Doctor and Rose smiled sadly at their counterparts. "Your molecular memory can survive this, you know. It may not be the end." The Doctor tossed over his sonic screwdriver over, and Rose quickly did the same. She walked up to Ganger Rose and gave her the vortex manipulator as well.

The Ganger Doctor smirked at the Doctor. "We'll call you up for scones. Once you've signally stopped fighting it."

"It's a date."

Rose smiled. "See you on the other side."

The Ganger Doctor gestured towards the TARDIS. "Now off you pop! You're delaying our heroic escape!" The Doctor took Rose's hand they quickly fled to the TARDIS. The sound of groaning filled the room and wind picked up around them as the TARDIS dematerialized.

The Ganger Doctor fixed the setting of his sonic and showed it to Ganger Rose. "This will dissolve her." He explained. Rose looked at it and nodded, she modified her sonic to do the same. "And us too."

Ganger Rose smirked at him. "Really? Giving up Doctor?" She shook her head.

The Doctor frowned at her. "What else? Come back? From being vaporized? How?"

Ganger Rose shrugged. "Dunno. But think about it, love. We always survive." Her eyes glowed gold. "And we've got Time on our side." The Ganger Doctor smiled. He grabbed the back of Ganger Rose's head and pulled her into a hard kiss. They pulled back and the Ganger Doctor flung the door open. They both raised their sonics at the oncoming monster, hands held and smiling.

"Geronimo."

* * *

The Doctor moved about the console of the TARDIS as he flew it through the Vortex. A new sonic screwdriver elevated up from the console. The Doctor patted the console and pocketed the device. "The energy from the TARDIS will stabilize the Gangers for good. They're people now."

The Cleaves' glanced at each other. "And what happens to us?" One of them asked. "I still have this." She gestured to her head, and the other nodded.

The Doctor nodded and clapped his hands. "Ah, that's not a problem. I have something for that. It's small and red and tastes like burnt onions. Ha. But it'll get rid of your blood clot." The Doctor pulled two vials out from a drawer on the console and tossed one to the Cleaves' each. "Now, let's get you all to the proper places, yeah?"

After dropping both the Jimmys at home — "they'll be needing to sort that out on their own" the Doctor had said — they travelled to a tall glass and metal building of some kind.

Cleaves looked at her team, so much smaller then it used to be. "You really want us to do this?"

The Doctor nodded. "Your company's telling the world that the situation is over. You need to get in there and tell them that the situation's only just begun. Make them understand what they're doing to the Flesh. Make them stop. Dicken, remember, people are good. In their bones, truly good. Don't hate them, will you?"

"How can I hate them? I'm one of them now."

Rose smiled at him. "Remember everyone we lost. Remember Jennifer, and who she was before the Flesh took over, yeah? They died, and that never should have happened. You can change it, make it never happen again."

The Doctor took Rose's hand and looked seriously at the new humans. "Make what you say in that room count."

They glanced between each other and nodded. They took a deep breath and headed into the conference room behind them. Rose leaned her head on the Doctor's shoulder and smiled up at him. He frowned and looked to Amy. Rose instantly straightened up. It was happening.

"I said breathe, Pond." The Doctor repeated. "Remember? Well, breathe."

Amy's brow furrowed. "Why?" She questioned. She gasped and grabbed her stomach as she doubled over. "Ah!"

Rory and Jack grabbed Amy's arms to help her stay up. Rory looked to the Doctor. "What's wrong with her?" Jack helped Amy straighten up.

The Doctor nodded towards the TARDIS. "Get her into the TARDIS." Jack and Rory made quick progress with Amy back to the TARDIS, the Doctor led the way.

"Doctor!" Rory called when the door had shut behind them. "What is happening to her?" Amy doubled over and clutched her stomach.

Rose rubbed Amy's back. "She's havin' contractions, Rory."

The Doctor walked up the steps to the console, Jack right behind him, and looked down on them. "She's going into labour."

Amy's eyes widened. "Did he say? No. No, no. Of course he didn't. Rory, I don't like this. Ow."

Rory shook his head. "I don't understand. You have to explain what's happening Doctor."

The Doctor frowned at his companion. "Explain what? She's having a baby. I needed to see the Flesh in its early days. That's why I scanned it. That's why we were there in the first place. I was going to drop you off for fish and chips first, but things happened and there was stuff and shenanigans. Beautiful word, shenanigans."

"Doctor!" Rose scolded.

"It hurts." Amy whimpered. Rose stroked the ginger's hair and whispered soothing words to her.

"Breathe, dear." Rose instructed. "We needed to get enough information to block the signal to the Flesh."

Amy looked up at her. "What signal?"

Jack looked sadly at the young woman. "The signal to you."

Rory looked between the three of them. "You knew. You all knew. That's what the staring was about. Oh my god! Why didn't you tell us!"

Jack glanced at the Doctor, but the man's face was devoid of any emotion. "We didn't know for certain. I'm sorry Rory."

The Doctor sniffed and looked up from the floor. "Rory, Rose, step away."

Rory looked back and forth between Amy and the Doctor. "Why? No. And why?"

"Doctor." Rose implored. "Is that really necessary?"

"Yes Rose it is! Given what we've learned, I'll be as humane as I can, but I need to do this and you need to stand away!"

Rose glared at the Doctor. She gave Amy one last hug. "Bad Wolf, Amy. Look for her." She whispered the words into the other woman's ears.

"What?" Amy shook her head. "No." She turned to the Doctor as Rory and Rose stepped away. "Doctor, I am frightened. I'm properly, properly scared."

The Doctor pulled out his sonic screwdriver from his pocket. "Don't be. Hold on. We're coming for you. I swear it. Whatever happens, however hard, however far, we will find you.

"I'm right here." Amy sobbed.

The Doctor took a deep breath and desperately tried to put all the swirling emotions inside of him into a little box. They would do him no good right now. "No, you're not. You haven't been here for a long, long time." He slowly raised his sonic screwdriver and pressed the button. Amy dissolved into a pile of Flesh.

* * *

Sorry for the ridiculous wait. I hope you enjoyed the chapter though! I don't think it was my best, but now that I have these two episodes past, which I really did not enjoy writing, at all, we can get on to some more fun stuff. Which means that waits will be shorter, fingers crossed.

Favourite part of the chapter?

Thanks for reading :)


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